ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond County Martin Luther King Jr. celebration concluded with its annual luncheon Monday, where guest speaker Barry Saunders used humor, personal reflection and history to challenge the audience at Wayman Chapel Faith Center.
Saunders, a Richmond County native and award-winning journalist, has spent more than four decades in local and regional journalism. He began his career in Atlanta at the Atlanta Constitution as a copy boy and obituary writer and has since written for numerous publications, including the News & Observer, The Washington Post, the Richmond County Daily Journal, the Robeson County News & Record and The Post Review in Indiana. He also founded and operated the Richmond County North Star in Rockingham for three years and currently publishes the Saunders Report, an independent online news platform.
“Today, Barry Saunders remains a respected and influential voice in journalism, blending decades of experience with humor, clarity and a deep understanding of the community he serves,” said Vickie Daniel, Richmond County Clerk of Superior Court and Saunders’ former classmate, during her introduction.
Saunders opened his remarks by reflecting on the significance of speaking on Dr. King’s birthday.
“It is a supreme honor for me to be here with you on the day we celebrate Dr. King’s birth because I actually went to Morehouse College because he went there, and I wanted to become a preacher,” Saunders said. “Yes, I went to school to become a preacher, but then I discovered women and liquor.”
He joked that the realization led him toward journalism.
“As a preacher, you have to walk the straight and narrow; you have to carry yourself a certain way. You have to be upright and dignified. To write for a newspaper, people don’t care what you do,” Saunders said.
Saunders spoke about the irony of his career accolades, noting that he has been recognized both as one of the best and worst columnists in the Triangle.
“I was voted best columnist in the triangle for about 20 years in a row,” he said. “Now every time I start feeling proud about that … I was also voted the worst columnist in the triangle for about 20 years in a row — now that will keep you humble.”
He said that humility was also shaped by growing up in Rockingham, recalling a phone call he once made home while attending a party in South Africa with Gov. James B. Hunt and Bishop Desmond Tutu.
“When my aunt answered, I excitedly said, ‘Jenny Wall, guess what? I’m at a party with Governor Hunt and Bishop Tutu,’ and her response was ‘Barry, call me back. I’m on the other line with Doris.’ She was always on the other line with Doris,” Saunders said.
Saunders said his proudest award came much earlier in life — a sixth-grade spelling bee.
“The first and best award I ever won was a spelling bee in Ms. Edna Gale Robinson’s sixth-grade class,” he said, adding that the win came on a day “all the smart kids were either on a field trip or absent.”
He credited teachers at Leak Street School with preparing him for life beyond Rockingham.
“The educational foundation I received at Leak Street from teachers like Ms. Robinson was the best I could’ve received anywhere in the world and prepared me as it did many of you to face an often hostile world,” Saunders said.
Saunders also shared how his career in news began in childhood, when he sold old copies of the Richmond County Daily Journal to a neighbor for a nickel.
“You also heard in the introduction that I’ve been a newspaper man for 47 years, but it’s actually more like 60,” he said. “I would take all the old copies of our family’s Richmond County Daily Journal and sell them to Mr. Lee … and he would always dutifully hand me a nickel.”
Saunders reflected on the difficulty of staying hopeful amid current events.
“It’s alright to get discouraged sometimes, though,” Saunders said. “But it’s not alright to stay discouraged.”
“Despair is a luxury we cannot afford because despair would not just be wrong, but it would be an insult to the people of good faith who came before us — both black and white,” he said. “Too many people paved too much for us to get where we are for us to just give up.”
Saunders also spoke about efforts to limit what is taught in schools, blending humor with concern.
“We live in a time now … when there’s a concerted effort by our actual government to prevent certain topics … from being taught,” he said, joking that while banning Plato was unacceptable, “I do wish they had banned geometry, algebra …”
Saunders said understanding American history requires acknowledging both the good and the bad.
“It’s understandable that some people only want the Chamber of Commerce version of American history to be taught and not the real version, because not all of America’s history is pretty and nice, but the greatness of America is that at one point, it had a willingness, it’s not a desire, to confront the ugly truths about its past. It didn’t do it voluntarily, but sometimes it had to be dragged kicking and screaming, but it did it,” said Saunders.”
Saunders closed by reflecting on Dr. King’s broader message beyond his most famous speech.
“He had speeches on which he challenged us to work harder. To care for the poorest among us, to strive to be the best that we can be as individuals and as a community, and that is my challenge to each of us,” Saunders said. “As Dr. King said in a speech in 1962, ‘we’re not where we want to be, and we’re not where we ought to be, but thank God we’re not where we used to be.’”
He ended with a final dose of humor, quoting Sanford and Son.
“I would like to leave you with the words of my favorite 20th-century philosopher, Fred T. Sanford, ‘Do unto others, and then run,’” Saunders said.
In addition, winners of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. essay and poster contests were recognized during the luncheon. Marcus Henderson of Richmond Senior High School received the essay award, while Cross Phi of Hamlet Middle School was named the poster contest winner. Live performances were held throughout the program by the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Choir.