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Delegate Stephanie Smith Delivers Martin Luther King Jr. Address, Urges Lawmakers to "Use the Time" of Session
Summary
At the Jan. 17 session in Annapolis, Delegate Stephanie Smith (Baltimore City) delivered the Martin Luther King Jr. Day address to the Maryland House of Delegates, calling on legislators to pursue economic and racial justice during the 90-day session and quoting King's 1965 remarks to urge action over patience.
Annapolis, Maryland, Jan. 17, 2025 — Delegate Stephanie Smith (Baltimore City) delivered the Martin Luther King Jr. Day address to the Maryland House of Delegates, urging lawmakers to "use the time" of the 90-day legislative session to address economic and racial injustices.
Smith told colleagues she remembers visiting the King Center in Atlanta and retracing civil rights sites with a youth group called Operation Understanding, saying those experiences underscored King’s call to persistent work rather than reliance on time alone. "We must use the time we've been granted to improve the lives of Marylanders who want to earn fair wages, experience safe working conditions, and live in affordable housing," she said.
Smith quoted King’s 1965 American Dream speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church: "We must use the time," and cited a 1967 Southern Christian Leadership Conference remark that "power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice." She warned that King's legacy is sometimes "sanitized, distorted, and cherry picked for convenience and comfort," and urged members to couple acts of charity with policies that correct the systems that produce inequality. "True compassion is more than flinging a coin at a beggar. It comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring," she said.
The delegate recounted the history of civil-rights organizing—boycotts of discriminatory transit, the 1963 church bombing that killed four girls, and the Selma marches across the Edmund Pettus Bridge—as examples of ordinary people producing extraordinary change. She closed by urging colleagues to let "justice reign" and to direct the energy of the legislative session toward reforms that address structural racism and economic disparities. "Our ultimate tribute to Doctor King: let us be compelled to use the power of our remaining time in session and in public service to allow justice to reign and correct everything that stands against love," Smith said.
A colleague later moved to journalize Smith’s remarks; the clerk recorded the motion as ordered. The session then proceeded to routine announcements and other business.
