Here & Now

Everett Mitchell Receives Dane County Humanitarian Award

Frederica Freyberg:

Now a look ahead to Monday, the national day of honor to the late Reverend Martin Luther King. The annual MLK state ceremonies will be held at the state capitol. Wisconsin Public Radio’s Dr. Jonathon Overby will once again be the program’s emcee. The ceremony is broadcast live on WPR and WPT starting at noon. Later in the day, Dane County and the city of Madison will celebrate Dr. King’s legacy by awarding humanitarian honors to community members who reflect King’s mission. One recipient joins us now. He’s Dane County circuit court judge Everett Mitchell, who is also Senior Pastor of Christ the Solid Rock Church in Madison. Thank you very much for being here.

Everett Mitchell:

Thank you for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

What does it mean to you to be the recipient of this award?

Everett Mitchell:

It's very humbling. It is very–for me to even be mentioned with the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Obviously being a Morehouse graduate, it was Dr. King’s statue on Morehouse’s campus that inspired me to reach for higher education. There hadn’t been a Mitchell that had went to college before. So when I walked on the grounds of Morehouse College and I saw that statute pointing fiercely on that campus, it really captured my imagination and made me think about the possibility of higher education. His legacy, the things he fought for, it means a lot to me and I've used his speeches as values, guiding my life, from the small town of Fort Worth, Texas to where I am now in Madison, Wisconsin.

Frederica Freyberg:

Describe some is of his words that have guided you.

Everett Mitchell:

Well, the biggest one is the idea of injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. And so that phrase really has become a value for me, whether I'm thinking about LGBT rights or focusing on issues relating to poverty or even now as a circuit court judge, how I deal with individuals in my courtroom. I realize that any small injustice really does impact the broader understanding of what justice can be. And it’s up to me and people like me and people in our community to make justice real and not just an ideal.

Frederica Freyberg:

Do you feel as though the legacy of Martin Luther King is being tested in these times?

Everett Mitchell:

I think the legacy of King has always been tested. I don’t think any new group, any new issue that arises requires us to reflect on those broader values of what it truly means to be a beloved community. The more we make ideal, the more we make Dr. King just an ideal, the more we do diminish the power of his legacy. He wasn’t asking us just to remember him. He was really asking us to put our words, our deeds into action and to make sure that we are the sole force that makes justice real for everyday people, for children, for families, for those who are stuck in wells of poverty and pain. We need to make it real and not just an ideal.

Frederica Freyberg:

So living it and not just noting it.

Everett Mitchell:

Yes, yes, yes. And becoming living embodiments. I have this ideal where I ask myself all the time, what do I do with the power that I've been given? Because sometimes we feel so powerless to do anything. We think you can’t make the machine move. We can’t effect change. When I reflect on Dr. King, it’s all about taking those moments, those small moments of power that you’ve been given, whether it’s a microphone, whether there’s a podium or whether there’s judicial bench, and you make real the ideals. You make people see each other as human beings. You make the system become a just one with the power you’ve been given. The biggest thing is that for Dr. King is a reminder that you don’t have to be — and this is not to offend anybody. You don’t have to be a senior to make a difference. Young people can step up and make a difference. Being the same age as Dr. King when he was assassinated is a reminder to me that make sure you give everything that you have to this community and I like to think I have done that for Dane County.

Frederica Freyberg:

Speaking of all of the things that you have done and all that you have given and your accomplishments, what stands out to you as perhaps the most rewarding or most important?

Everett Mitchell:

I still think becoming the first black pastor of a Baptist church to marry a same-sex couple in my church probably stands out to me as one of the most courageous and probably scary moments of my life. But I just believe that that is the true embodiment of what King called us to be. To really see ourselves tied together into a single garment of destiny. What affects one directly affects us all indirectly. And to allow injustice towards same-sex couples to exist even within the black church is something we couldn’t stand for. I’d like to think it’s something he wouldn’t stand for. For the black church or any religious institution to remain true to a sense of purpose, we needed to stand up and say, “They’re human beings just like any other human beings.” The women I married had been together for 45 years. I didn’t know any straight couples that had been together 45 years. I was happy to give them that blessing, to give them the moment that they felt special and they felt included in this narrative of humanity.

Frederica Freyberg:

Where do you go from here? What’s next for you to do and to live?

Everett Mitchell:

I don’t know. I think the role that I play in the judiciary branch here in Dane County and working with the juveniles is one place I really want to put a lot of energy. I see so many kids who come into our system who are broken, who are disconnected. I think we need to make sure we keep them at the center of our community so we can really change the narrative of Dane County and the nation. So I'm excited to be a part of that ongoing change.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Judge Mitchell, thank you very much.

Everett Mitchell:

Thank you all so much.

Frederica Freyberg:

Reverend Mitchell will be joined Monday by another Dane County Martin Luther King humanitarian award honoree, Reverend Dr. Carmen Porco. Among many other endeavors, Dr. Porco is the head of the housing ministries of American Baptists in Wisconsin.