DETROIT (FOX 2) – Horace Sheffield III was in Washington D.C. during Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963.
“I was there. I sold buttons. I went to planning meetings,” he said.
Sheffield, who was 9 at the time, said his father, Horace Sheffield Jr., and King formed a friendship in the 1950s. His father’s work as a Black trade unionist helped bring King to Detroit.
(February 18th, 2021) — Today we honor Rev. Horace L. Sheffield, III.
The Rev. Horace L. Sheffield, III, was born in Detroit, Michigan, during the Civil Rights and Labor Movements to Horace L., Jr., and Mary Sheffield. Through his father’s work and legacy, Horace L. Sheffield, Jr., the Vice President of the Negro American Labor Council (NALC) under A. Philip Randolph, its Founder and President, Rev. Sheffield, III, was providentially exposed to various enduring models of “servant leadership” and “prophetic societal challenge.”
Called to preach in June 1965 at eleven years of age, while listening to the preaching of Dr. Martin L. King, Jr., who was in Detroit at the invitation of his father to raise money for the Lowndes County Movement.