Goler Metropolitan AME Zion to celebrate 60th anniversary of Martin Luther King’s visit

On April 13, 1964, just a year after his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. made a stop in Winston-Salem. On that day Dr. King spoke to more than 1,000 people who managed to make it inside Goler Metropolitan AME Zion Church.  The focus of King’s speech was the importance of voting and the need to keep protests peaceful.  A marker located outside the church commemorates that day. In 2021, just before the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Prayer Breakfast, The Chronicle spoke with Velma Hopkins and Rahman Wilson who remember the day King came to town. Hopkins, who was known for her role in organizing a strike against R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company in the 1940s, said King was humble and treated everyone he met that day with respect.  “I remember he was a down-to-earth man. And he kept everyone’s feet in the grass. He wasn’t a man who was big on I’s and little on U’s,” Hopkins continued. “I think Dr. King did a beautiful job. He was a God-sent man. And whatever happens, he will always be Dr. Martin Luther King.” Wilson, who was only 14 at the time, didn’t make it...