Detroit pastor invokes MLK's 'I Have a Dream' speech at Trump inauguration

Melissa Nann Burke and Beth LeBlanc, The Detroit News on Jan 20, 2025

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WASHINGTON — Detroit Pastor Lorenzo Sewell quoted at length from Martin Luther King Jr.'s historic "I Have a Dream" speech during a Monday invocation at the close of President Donald J. Trump's inauguration.

The comments, some almost word for word from King's speech, come on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the commemoration of the civil rights leader's birthday and a federal holiday.

Sewell, pastor for 180 Church in west Detroit, began his remarks thanking God for Trump's "millimeter miracle," an apparent reference to the bullet that skimmed the president's ear during an assassination attempt in mid-July at a Butler, Pennsylvania campaign rally.

"We are grateful that you are the one that have called him for such a time as this, that America would begin to dream again," Sewell said.

Sewell prayed that God would use the country's president and prayed that Americans can "live in a nation where we will not be judged by the color of our skin, but by the content of our character."

"We are so grateful today that you will use our 47th president so we will sing with new meaning, 'My country tis of thee,'" Sewell said, before quoting almost directly from the last three paragraphs of King's address.

Sewell told The Detroit News earlier this month that he planned to refer frequently to King's speech as a prayer that Trump would "live out that dream, and we would see that as one nation."

"After a very divisive political season, we all need to get back to the same page ― that this is our country, 'tis of thee,'" Sewell said.

Sewell worked to boost Trump's campaign among Black voters in Detroit during the 2024 campaign, including by hosting a roundtable with him in June at Sewell's 180 Church on Stansbury Avenue on the city's west side.

The pastor said his invitation to pray at the ceremony stemmed from a promise Trump made during the June visit to Sewell's Detroit church.

"Can you imagine shaking the 45th president's hand ― now the 47th president-elect ― and him looking at you and saying, 'At the inauguration, you'll be there.' And then him actually doing it! Wow," Sewell said earlier this month.

Sewell, 43, of Harper Woods grew up on Detroit's east side, selling drugs on the streets and watching his father go to prison for murder, he said. He later became a Christian in 1999 and started preaching at age 19, he said. His 180 Church is now in its seventh year.

After hosting Trump last summer at his church, Sewell went on to speak at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee and other GOP or conservative events including several organized by the group Turning Point USA. He also gave the invocation earlier this month at the opening day of session in the Michigan House.

Sewell credits Trump with taking him from a "vaguely known" pastor to an internationally known minister, saying he's seen a growth not only in his political prowess but in the influence of his church.

Imam Husham Al-Husainy of the Karbalaa Islamic Education Center in Dearborn, was initially scheduled to speak at Monday's ceremony but did not do so for reasons that remain unclear.

Al-Husainy, who last year endorsed Trump, leads a congregation of mostly Iraqi immigrants and is a friend of Lebanese-American businessman Massad Boulos, whom Trump tapped to be his senior adviser covering Arab and Middle Eastern affairs.

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