For Wareham native Miguel Gomes, Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy is personal.

Speaking at the Wareham Boys and Girls Club’s annual Martin Luther King Day breakfast on Monday, Jan. 20, the retired college administrator remembered lunchtime at Wareham High School in the mid-1960s. He and his four regular lunch buddies – all of Cape Verdean heritage – were born at a time when many doors to opportunity were closed to African Americans.

“Those four individuals got something from Martin Luther King they had no idea they would get,” he recalled. “All of a sudden in the mid-60s, we had affirmative action and all of these things. The playing field was being leveled.”

Two members of the lunch bunch went on to get law degrees, two earned advanced academic degrees, and Gomes became a vice president at Bridgewater State College.

Growing up during the movement, King’s work had a lasting impact.

For this generation, nearly a half-century removed from the Civil Rights Movement, Gomes feels it is important to let King’s message and story live on.

"We need to help kids to deal with what Martin talked about: character," said Gomes. "What we need to do is plant the seeds of character."

Creating character will allow children to be successful people, according to Gomes.

The kids “all have a journey, and they just have to realize what their journey is,” Gomes said. “If they can gather from where they think they’re going and get some wisdom from the past and put it together.”

This is why Gomes valued speaking at the breakfast, where the club also held the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Youth Spirit Awards. These awards recognized students who had done hard work both in and outside of school.

“When Ms. Sullivan started the club, Martin Luther King’s message was ‘I have a dream,’ and she was trying to get that message across to the kids,” club director Ken Fontes said.

Getting King’s message across is key for Gomes, as opposed to building King’s legacy. Gomes said by idolizing those that we honor, people do a disservice both the idols and themselves.

“We turn Martin into a legendary tale that is told annually, and we fail to recognize his humanity, his personal and public struggles that our similar to our own,” Gomes explained.

Gomes has made King’s message and life relatable to his own experiences, and hoped his keynote speech inspired others to do the same and pass along to a younger generation.

Featured below is a video of part the breakfast, photos and PDFs which feature children's versions of King's "I have a Dream."