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Kim Covington bestowed MLK diversity award in Paradise Valley

Spiritual Assembly of Baha’i continues pursuit of racial equity

Posted 1/21/20

Fellowship. Unity. Racial Equity. Peace.

The spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is alive and well in the Town of Paradise Valley, but more work must be done, proponents of racial equity …

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Kim Covington bestowed MLK diversity award in Paradise Valley

Spiritual Assembly of Baha’i continues pursuit of racial equity

Posted
I believe God called me to connect people with stories that awaken our truth. The more we learn about humanity, the more we can change our mistakes. The more we can love and the more we learn about humanity helps us not live in fear anymore
– Kim Covington

Fellowship. Unity. Racial Equity. Peace.

The spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is alive and well in the Town of Paradise Valley, but more work must be done, proponents of racial equity contend.

Paradise Valley Town Hall, 6401 E. Lincoln Drive, played host to the 2020 installment of The Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i of Paradise Valley’s annual salute to the civil rights icon.

Countless deplorable acts against Dr. King, his family, his followers and his perspective did not stop the man whose legacy is honored and observed by all American communities on the third Monday of January.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is the only National Day of Service named after an American civil rights pioneer and the namesake of an award bestowed upon Kim Covington, a former journalist and now senior director of community initiatives at the Arizona Community Foundation.

The Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i of Paradise Valley presented Ms. Covington with its 2020 Diversity Champion Award Monday, Jan. 20, honoring her pursuit of racial equity through her years as a television journalist --- now spearheading community connections at the Arizona Community Foundation.

Paradise Valley Mayor Jerry Bien-Willner offered a welcome to the hundreds of guests attending Town Hall to honor the legacy of Dr. King.

“It is my distinct pleasure to participate in the patronage of the history of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” he told the room of local dignitaries. “What a wonderful program we have here today to inspire you for the rest of the year. To understand how much progress we have made, and how much progress we have yet to make. It is a day of celebration for me on many levels.”

The program, which has been occurring at Town Hall for more than 20 years, offered keynote speakers, original music, the endowment of awards to local students who penned essays on racial equality and, finally, the delivery of the 2020 diversity award.

A child of the 1960s, Susan Weidner, who spoke on behalf of The Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’i of Paradise Valley, offered insights to her experience of the pursuit of racial equity.

“My hometown of Philadelphia was on fire due to the injustices happening in the black community,” she said of her formative years in middle America. “What is important to understand in all of this is it was a great sacrifice to accomplish the civil rights landmark legislation. But now that we are finished, those challenges continue.”

To truly understand another human being, Ms. Weidner contends, one must first learn to listen.

“What can we do more as individuals to promote better race relations?” she asked the crowd gathered in Paradise Valley. “Maybe we need to do more listening and less talking? Maybe, we should move away from where people fall in levels of society?”

For Ms. Weidner the nonviolent approach to racial equity is the sole path of the righteous.

“We can be that shining city atop the hill when we end all prejudice,” she said. “We can do more as people who believe in those ideals.”

2020 MLK diversity award

Ms. Covington has talked the talk --- and walked the walk.

Ms. Covington is a cherished, award-winning journalist and education advocate most recently serving as anchor on 12News for more than a decade.

Following her step away from the television limelight, Ms. Covington founded The Covington Company, which counted the Arizona Community Foundation as one of its first clients.

During her lauded journalism career, published news reports illustrate her dedication to quality work that helped the communities she served as a journalist. Awards include:

  • The Judge Jean Williams Service Award;
  • The Arizona School Public Relations Association Award of Excellence;
  • Four Emmy Awards for excellence in reporting, and several Associated Press awards for uncovering a dark secret in Springfield; and
  • She was instrumental in a local television series on race relations, called “Ebony in an Ivory Tower.”

“You could be anywhere and you decided to come here to learn and to appreciate the legacy of Dr. King,” she said.  “We all share the same values in this room: The same hope for humanity.”

Ms. Covington called herself a student of history --- an endeavor that sparked some of her finest work, she says.

“To study humanity is to study culture, philosophy and literature,” she explained. “The more I learn about history, I learn about myself and the more I learn about you. We are made by history.”

For change to occur, Ms. Covington contends, the understanding of one another is the foundation to make real, meaningful changes in ourselves, local communities and the world.

“I have come to realize to effectuate change --- to be able to bring a brighter future --- we must truly understand who we really are,” she explained.

Ms. Covington recalled one of her first television reports, which was aired in Springfield, Missouri in the late 1980s.

“I learned that in 1906, blacks were prosperous in Springfield,” she said of research she uncovered while working on the report pointing out the fact black businesses flourished at the turn of the 20th Century in that part of Missouri.

“I also learned that a group of white people did not like that. An angry mob lynched three prominent black men and burned their bodies --- they cleansed the community of black people. I felt I had to uncover this story.”

The year was 1987, and Ms. Covington was a new black reporter in a prominently white community.

“I went to my editor and she said, ‘make sure you get the facts and you look for a survivor,’” she recalled of the broadcast negotiations. “Well, I found that survivor, I talked to that survivor and I did that story. I did this in 1987. After the story aired I received threats from the Ku Klux Klan and the Aryan Nation.”

Remaining steadfast to the facts, the black community in Springfield had a bit of an awakening of pride, Ms. Covington recalls of the story’s reaction.

“The result was an awakening,” she recalled. “Blacks learned that wealth gap was not due to lack of effort it was prescribed long ago.”

Ms. Covington offered the crowd a second piece of work she recalled with pride.

“This time, I examined 7th-grade history books,” she said of her profile of a Title 1 school district in the city of Phoenix. “What I found was shocking. It framed slavery as a matter of economic pragmatism. No mention of the Tuskegee Airmen. You know what I did? I brought one to the class.”

During that classroom presentation, a young boy tugged at Ms. Covington’s sleeve, and whispered, “I want to fly one day too.”

“History can inspire us, can’t it?” Ms. Covington said of the power of knowledge and education.

“I believe God called me to connect people with stories that awaken our truth. The more we learn about humanity, the more we can change our mistakes. The more we can love and the more we learn about humanity helps us not live in fear anymore.”