By Laura Morales, JVA  Consulting

If ever there was a time to celebrate the life, work, legacy and principles of Martin Luther King, this is it. With media focused on incidents that have left black youth dead in America’s streets, and with Selma acting as a reminder and catalyst for ongoing activism, there could not be a better time for reflection.

In Denver on Monday, over 40,000 marched together, with passion and purpose. Too often, when thousands of people come together like this, there is the inevitable “end” and the question arises in everyone’s mind: Now what?

Anthony Grimes, a graduate of JVA’s Social Enterprise Academy (now Social Enterprise BaseCamp), answered that question when the organization he founded, Denver Freedom Riders, convened Denver’s first Black Lives Matter Conference at the conclusion of the Marade. Hoping that a variety of community members would venture to the McNichols building after the Marade for an afternoon of education and discussion, he and the other organizers were delighted when more than 1,600 people attended.

While the Conference focused on education through a well-run panel, performances by local recording artists such as Jonny 5 and Kenny O of the Flobots and Darrel Walker of The Spirituals Project, and a variety of topical breakout sessions, it also aimed to share the experience of the Denver Freedom Riders and what they have experienced in the last five months. During this time, Grimes has led three groups, totaling about 30 Denver Freedom Riders, on trips to Ferguson, MO, helping bring support to that community.

“In Ferguson, we stood not just with black teenagers, but pastors and middle aged white people, all coming together as one,” Grimes says, noting that the crowds in Ferguson included every type of person imaginable in terms of the range of races, ages, religions, nationalities, etc.

Asked what difference such gatherings as those in Ferguson and for Denver’s Black Lives Matter conference make in the big picture, he does not hesitate. “It can make a huge difference in the world, in our city and in our communities. These gatherings transform the human heart.”

The work of Denver Freedom Riders and others have not just gathered people together, but have led to dialogues with the mayor of Denver, the governor, members of the Denver City Council and the Legislature with the larger goal of changing society through activism, policy, and education.

“The Denver Freedom Riders are messengers of freedom, leaders from a diverse background of races, religions, and sectors, who see ourselves as family,” said Grimes, who notes that the group was formed in the same spirit as the Freedom Riders organized by student activists in the 1960s. Originally created to join and support the protestors in Missouri in the wake of Michael Brown’s death, the group has evolved with hopes to bring the messages forged on the streets of Ferguson—messages of solidarity, educational empowerment, and commitment to action—back to the city of Denver.

He says the people who joined him on his trips to Ferguson all came back energized and excited about working to transform their own communities. That’s what I saw on Monday as well. Instead of rhetorically asking “what next?” people found a community to be involved in and a cause to work for–namely to fight for a society in which equality and justice are lived out through the systems of our nation and the actions of all.

Grimes states that, “King was not as safe and sanitized as our country, sometimes remembers him to be; he was, at his core, a revolutionary. We follow his tradition, and the tradition of our many diverse ancestors. Through this conference, we declare that we have a dream–a dream for a new kind of society that our kids and grandkids can inherit.”