Bermudian Led Georgia City’s MLK Tribute
A Bermudian pastor led the tributes to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at his historic Georgia church last month when the murdered Civil Rights leader’s life and mission of non-violence were celebrated in the city of Newnan.
Pastor David O. Trott was the keynote speaker at the 2011 observances honouring Dr. King held on held January 7-8. Newnan, located about 30 miles southwest of Atlanta, honours Dr. King each year with a parade and other city-wide events in the days preceding his January 15 birthday — now a national holiday in the United States.
At the memorial programme held at Pastor Trott’s Greater Mt. Zion AME Church, speakers emphasised the importance of Dr. King’s message of non-violence and the Christian message of how life can come from death.
And Pastor Trott also reminded those in attendance that King’s message wasn’t only for African-Americans.
“When we pump up MLK” and other Civil Rights leaders, “we’re still just concentrating on black folk. Martin Luther King talked about multiracial unity. Dr. King’s dream was to see his sons and daughters “walk hand in hand with people from other races and other cultures,” Pastor Trott said.
Pastor Trott, 43, took up his ministry at Greater Mount Zion AME Church in 2009. He told a Georgia newspaper he finds the friendliness and courtesy in the South similar to what he experienced in Bermuda growing up.
“In Bermuda, it’s similar to down South,” he said. “I was in school up north,” Pastor Trott joked, adding, “You spoke, and people kept walking.”
Pastor Trott said he was born into Bermuda’s AME church and answered the call to preach when he was 15 — but about three years later “I began to struggle with whether I was called to pastor.”
After first working with youth and musical programmes in the AME Church, Pastor Trott finally decided he had “a heart for people” — a true pastor’s heart — and began to make plans to train for the ministry.
Working by day in a Bermuda a mill shop doing fine carpentry, because he had not finished high school Pastor Trott first had to earn a general equivalency diploma by studying at night. Then, after taking some classes at the Bermuda College, he attended Point Park College — now Point Park University — in Pittsburgh.
Later he attended Turner Theological Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. While he was studying, he served as pastor at Oak Grove AME Church in LaGrange for five years.
His higher education helped Pastor Trott become “more open minded to other people,” he said. He said he came to see that people from different parts of the world and people with different experiences often see situations and opportunities in differing ways.
Pastor Trott and his wife, Camille, have been married 17 years. They have two sons, David Jr., and, Amiel. Pastor Trott also has a daughter who lives in Bermuda with her mother.
Rev. Trott was a member of the Berkeley Institute Class of ’84! Respice Finem! Good stuff.