Just like the Biblical Joshua and his army at Jericho, black people still need to march to bring down walls, said the keynote speaker at a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration on Monday.

Hundreds gathered at Tabernacle Christian Church for the 30th annual Suffolk citywide celebration. The event included music, awards to local students and community servants and a speech by Patricia Gould-Champ, pastor of Faith Community Baptist Church in Richmond.

“We are still facing some Jericho walls,” Gould-Champ said, recounting the Biblical story of how Joshua led his army to march around Jericho once each day for six days and to march around the city seven times on the seventh day and give a shout, at which time the city’s walls fell and it was conquered.

“We’re here today because God brought down some walls,” Gould-Champ said. “Dare to take another lap around. Watch the walls of the city come down.”

Comparing the marches of the Civil Rights movement to the marches of Joshua’s army, she encouraged celebrants to march around the sanctuary.

“God has delivered, but we have to participate in our deliverance,” she said. “Will you trust God to do the simple thing that God has called us to do?”

She recalled the boycotts and other protests of the Civil Rights movement, saying participants had to believe in their efficacy and get creative, for example, to get to work and church during the public transportation boycotts.

“Boycotts are a simple act, so simple some people refused to participate in them, because they felt they were useless and ineffective,” she said. “Consistency is the key. We have to keep marching around this city, keep being consistent, keep expecting change.”

Community servants Dorothy Rawls and Ruby Walden were honored at the celebration with the Suffolk Community Award.

Rawls was the first black person in Suffolk to serve on the Social Services board, is a life member of the NAACP, is a Sunday school teacher at Antioch United Church of Christ and has served with the Suffolk Sickle Cell Association.

Walden has been a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, been involved in the Holland Order of the Eastern Star and volunteered for many different organizations.

Several students were recognized in the Martin Luther King essay contest.

“As a society, we have forgotten the true meaning of what the dream really means,” Kayla Vincent, the first-place winner of the high school contest, wrote in her essay. “We must remember to continue this work through 2012 and beyond, as long as it takes for the dream to be realized.”

Elizabeth Childs, first-place winner of the middle school contest, wrote, “If you give someone a chance, you may be surprised at what they can achieve.”

Others recognized in the essay contest included high school second-place winner Syndey Billmeyer and honorable mentions AnnaLynne Escobar, Shaheen Khan, Xavier Tolibert, Alicia Jiggetts and Kayla Filio.

In addition, the Young Men of Direction Club at John F. Kennedy Middle School received the I Have a Dream Award.

Mayor Linda T. Johnson also provided remarks during the program, reflecting on what King meant to her generation.

“He said we have indeed come a long way, but we’ve got a long way to go,” Johnson said. “He was a vessel of change.”

The service was interrupted almost before it began, when Johnson’s remarks were delayed by Paul Gillis, an audience member, shouting “One man, one vote” and “What the City Council did was wrong” when Johnson approached the pulpit.

Gillis, an outspoken critic of a redistricting plan that awaits approval by the U.S. Department of Justice, continued to shout “One man, one vote” as he was escorted from the sanctuary by a group of men.

The Rev. Carlton R. Upton Sr., pastor of Tabernacle Christian Church, apologized for the outburst before Johnson continued, saying that the celebration is not meant to be a political event. He received a standing ovation.