The mood at the Martha’s Vineyard NAACP’s Martin Luther King Jr. luncheon on Monday was both celebratory and serious.
The Portuguese-American Club was at capacity for the annual event, which serves as both a membership drive and a time for reflection.
The NAACP’s executive board was sworn in, and NAACP leaders and members lifted up Reverend King’s legacy and how far their own organization has come. But it was also a pivotal moment in deciding how to move forward in a country that many speakers said is increasingly hostile to marginalized communities and democracy itself.
“As a Black and Native American woman in an interracial marriage, I worry about the future of this country,” said Grace Robinson, chair of the NAACP’s Martin Luther King Jr. committee, in her address to the crowd. “We face persistent racial injustice, economic inequality and the erosion of trust and democracy in our government.”
Reverend King’s approach to civil rights activism was the lens through which Mondays’ discussion was filtered, with many drawing on his prolific writings from the past to address the present.
NAACP board member and former vice president Dr. Lorna Chambers-Andrade, was the master of ceremonies on Monday. She recalled her parents hosting Reverend King and his wife, the activist Coretta Scott King, at their home in Boston. She still holds closely the words she heard him spoke when she was a child.
“I remember Dr. King making a statement: freedom is not free,” she said.
Vineyard NAACP president Shawn Ramoutar, newly elected in November, said that an Island built on freedom and equity arises only from a collective effort, undertaken by people from all walks of life.
“Our destiny is tied together in the same boat,” he said. “We call it the ferry.”
He described 2025 as a transitional year for the MV NAACP amid numerous leadership and personnel changes. Despite the challenges, he said it was a successful year of strengthening partnerships with organizations across the Island and advancing its mission.
The organization’s goals for 2026 include engaging more young people and involving the Island’s Brazilian, Jamaican and other immigrant communities. The group is also piloting a new program to help businesses protect immigrants’ rights amid a surge of ICE raids nationwide, including a raid that took place on the Vineyard in May.
“Our 2026 strategic plan calls for us to grow our membership and build a truly representative Island-wide coalition of freedom fighters,” Mr. Ramoutar said. “[We] hope we can ensure Martha’s Vineyard remains a community where justice prevails and democracy thrives. Our unity is our strength.”
It was a sentiment shared by Monday’s keynote speaker, activist Kyle Williams.
Mr. Williams is the creator of “A Long Talk about the Uncomfortable Truth,” a 21-day anti-racism experience that has welcomed over 25,000 people to participate in conversations about race, history and accountability.
When Mr. Williams took the stage, he was wearing a hoodie that read, “All My Heroes Have FBI Files.” The hoodie, from Black-owned clothing brand Melaninful, also included images of civil rights activists Angela Davis, John Lewis, and Martin Luther and Coretta Scott King.
Though he considers himself “more Malcolm than Martin,” referring to civil rights leader Malcolm X, Mr. Williams chose to open his address with a quote from Reverend King: “There’s nothing more tragic than to sleep through a revolution.”
“There’s a revolution going on in our country right now, and it’s not the one we were hoping for,” Mr. Williams said.
He criticized the Trump administration for the intensity with which it has deployed federal immigration forces nationwide, as well as its recent invasion of Venezuela without approval from Congress.
The normalization of white supremacy in America, he said, is becoming increasingly dire.
“The Jim Crow era didn’t start with all the bad stuff,” he said. “It just kind of was acceptable to do a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more.”
He also noted that the Trump administration this year revoked the long-standing policy of free entry to America’s national parks on Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth, replacing it instead with free entry to the parks on President Trump’s birthday.
“We laugh and shrug it off, but I’m telling you… whatever wokeness or knowledge you’ve got, it’s time to turn it up or turn off the light,” he said.
Mr. Williams said fighting white supremacy and other forms of systemic oppression requires people of all backgrounds and identities to form a cohesive resistance effort.
“Everything in America that was pushed forward has always been because of a collection of black and white [people], back to abolition,” he said.
He asked each person in the crowd to find it within themselves to approach activism however they can, whether it’s buying from a Black-owned business or joining an organized protest effort.
“Start in the mirror,” he said.
This article appears in January 23, 2026.