Members and churches of the Sampson County Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance joined together for a night of worship, dancing and unity during the 48th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr Memorial Service at Mount Pleasant Baptist Church Ministries on Sunday night.
Former president and founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Choir, Roberta Davis, was honored for her years involved in the choir.
“I thank you all for keeping me in your mind to invite and honor me,” Davis said. “I really appreciate it. It has been a joy of mine to see how this program and choir have evolved. I must say that I am very thrilled to have been a part of it since its inception. Thank you very much.”
The choir came together when Davis realized there were two choirs performing at the program’s fifth event at the Union Grove Church of Christ. After successfully getting permission to put together a community choir, the choir sung together for the first time at Lisbon Street Missionary Baptist Church.
“To my surprise, we began with about 25 members,” Davis recalled. “This choir right here, none of the original choir members are involved because most of them are gone. Each year, the enrollment continued to grow, until the choir membership grew to 85 voices. Since COVID, the membership has fluctuated. This program along with the choir are highly coveted each year in the month of February. We’ve been singing for over 40 years.”
And sing they did, as the choir, along with Davis, showered the attendees with songs throughout the night. Throughout the program, there were various moments where the crowd rose out of their seats to join in on the singing as a community.
The program serves itself as a fundraiser, with its goal of helping members of the community in need.
The choir brought together members from 43 churches, said President of the Sampson County Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance Apostle Marcus Becton. “Over the year of 2025, we’ve had the privilege of helping 31 families. Families to keep from losing their lights, from getting evicted out of their homes. Families that may have some individuals that were displaced, some need help paying rent. So many different things that we’ve been privileged to be able to help. All of this is simply because of your monetary giving. From the pastors, churches and congregation of the event that we have one time a tear to help fund this operation. So we want to continue to have and keep that support going. We thank you for your current support in this organization in these endeavors.”
Ministers and church pastors gave offerings of $40, while churches represented would offer $200 to the alliance in efforts to continue with assisting members in the community.
“The overall purpose of the program is to honor the life of Dr. King,” Becton explained. “It’s also a celebration of Black history and its primary goal is to help raise funds. The funds we raise for this night, over the course of the year, we help individuals as they come and assist.”
Prior to the program, Becton pointed out that the event usually fills out the capacity of the church.
“It makes us feel good, to know that we’re able to reach out to people and that people are coming,” Becton said. “We’ve also had people come as far as Duplin County and Wallace to sing as part of the choir. This year we have musicians that are coming from Wilson. To see people coming together for that common cause, it’s a good feeling.”
Becton was thankful of the support the community gives to the alliance and the choir.
“We look forward every year to two aspects of this service,” he emphasized. “Good preaching and good singing. The choir is very excited. I think the main thing is thanking the support in this annual event. We normally hit the ground running after this service. You do have to live in Sampson County or some part of Sampson for us to assist. I try to be open to individuals we help, it has to be an entire year before we can help them again. That’s due to application no matter what it is. That’s what the alliance board has set in place for what they want. Sometimes if it’s down to something like 11 months, we may decided to go ahead and help, because people can’t always help the problems they run into. So we try to be lenient and understanding. (But we’ll) continue to work towards helping mankind in whatever area as it deems necessary for individuals when they need help and come to us.”