SPRINGFIELD –The annual celebration for Martin Luther King Jr. Day in the city was marked by calls for action to continue King’s work fighting injustice.

Gov. Charlie Baker attended the event at the MassMutual Center for the second year in a row and said that his favorite quote from King was, “If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”

Baker then added, “We are not moving backward. We are moving forward.”

The governor spoke of the role faith played in King’s civil rights efforts and the hope that he gave people.

“It was that hope, that sense of possibilities that made his words so special,” Baker said. He then added, “His whole life was a leap of faith.” Baker said, “He wanted us to see ourselves in one another.”

The annual program presented by Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services, Community Music School of Springfield, D.R.E.A.M. Studio and Springfield College drew hundreds of people who came despite single digit temperatures.

The program featured music performances from the MLK Festival Drummers, the students of the Community Music School, singer Vanessa Ford and others.

Waleska Lugo DeJesus of the Healing Racism Institute told the audience that they must confront injustice. “We need to denounce it just as Dr. King did,” she said.

Citing the political and social climate in the country today, she added, “This is the United States, not the divided states … how can we be silent to injustice?”

She asked the audience to stand, turn to the person next to them and say, “I see you,” then speak to them for three minutes stating what they would like to see in 2019.

She said this exercise was to emphasize, “We are all part of the human family.”

State Rep. Bud Williams noted there are numerous incidences that indicate a reverse of gains in civil rights and criticized the actions to the Trump Administration.

“We all have work to do. There is an evil spirit in the country to turn back the hands of time to the ‘40s, the ‘50s to make American great again,” Williams said.