FAIRHOPE, Ala. — It will soon be 50 years since Martin Luther King Jr. stood on the Lincoln Memorial steps and gave a speech about having a dream, which electrified a movement for racial justice and equality, spurring the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 two years later.

And it was just one year ago this week, not far from where that 1963 speech took place, that the nation’s first black president took the oath of office.

“President Obama is continuing to carry on the dream and make it into a reality, so that it will be a better world for my children and grandchildren,” said Valarie Chaney Monday night, a few hours after she gave the keynote address at the 23rd Annual Baldwin County Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King’s Birthday. “He’s just an amazing man, taking up the fight and moving it forward. But we, as African-Americans, need to get even more involved now in moving the dream forward in all aspects of life, whether it be political or community oriented; we should be busy, continuing the work that Dr. King left for us to do.”

One of the largest crowds in the local event’s history attended the Jan. 18 parade through downtown Fairhope and awards ceremony at the Fairhope Civic Center, sponsored by the Baldwin County Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Committee Inc. Themed “Stand Up for Your Community,” local officials estimated attendance at the parade at more than 125 people, and at the event itself, at more than 500.

“This is one of the biggest crowds we’ve had yet, and it is the young that made the difference,” said Rev. James Crook of Union Baptist Church in Bay Minette, toward the end of an event that included several award presentations, musical performances and recognition of a number of elected officials in the audience from Fairhope, Daphne, Bay Minette and Foley. “You are our future. Through your presence here today, our future looks bright.”

Awards for community involvement and public education work were presented to Barbara Brown of Bay Minette, the Daphne-based Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, and an anonymous church that intervened with funds on behalf of Daphne residents facing sewage service disconnections.

Chaney, a leader with the interfaith community group ACT II (All Churches and Congregations Working Together) and member of Macedonia Baptist Church in Daphne, stepped up on short notice as keynote speaker, when the scheduled speaker, local news anchor and reporter Kesshia Peyton, took ill Sunday night and was hospitalized.

“One particular quote (of King’s) that really stands out and means a lot to me is this one that I would like to pass along,” Chaney told the packed Civic Center. “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter.”

Willie Williams, president of the MLK Celebration Committee and lead organizer of the event, gave a similar message, when he noted several things county residents should get involved in, and ways of speaking up.

“This is a very important year for voting,” he said. “If you’re 18 years old, you need to go register. I’m challenging you this year to get involved in 2010.”

In 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize, the youngest person to receive it. Four years later, he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. He was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2004; and Martin Luther King Jr. Day was established as a national holiday In 1987.

“This is our hope,” King said during his famous speech on Aug. 28, 1963. “This is the faith that I go back South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood.”

King became a civil rights activist early in his career as a Baptist minister in Montgomery, where he helped lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott and found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

The Baldwin County Martin Luther King Jr. celebration event closed with the audience of more than 500 people standing, holding hands, and singing together the anthem of the civil rights movement, “We Shall Overcome.”

Next year’s event will be in Daphne, and the 25th annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration will occur in Bay Minette, Williams said.