WATERVILLE — Watching a documentary about Martin Luther King Jr. brought an emotional Stan Davis, of Wayne, back to when he was 17 years old and determined to get to Selma, Alabama, to join the civil rights movement King was leading there.

Davis was among some 80 people who gathered Monday at The Playhouse at Waterville Station at 17 Railroad Square to observe Martin Luth King Jr. Day. They watched a documentary that showed the racist and violent reception Black people looking to register to vote in Alabama faced in the 1960s.

Davis said his arrival to join some 25,000 marchers toward the end of the hard-fought battle — his parents objected because they feared he’d be killed — probably didn’t change anything there. But it changed him for the rest of his life, he said.

“There was just this sense of being part of something much bigger than myself that’s moved me ever since,” Davis said. It changed his approach to music and motivated him in a career of working to help abused children, he said.

King, preaching nonviolence, eventually led marchers in their famous 1965 marches from Selma to Montgomery to demand voting rights.

Davis said when people tell him the current, divisive, state of the country “isn’t what our country is,” he thinks back to the early 1960s and what the country was like then.

He encouraged today’s activists to look to the movement’s leaders for inspiration. He also suggested a new saying, in light of the ongoing controversy over President Donald Trump’s efforts to use U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers to step up immigration enforcement.

“We know how to deal with ICE, we use SALT,” he said, which stands for Solidarity, Action, Love, and Truth.

Monday’s observance was organized by Indivisible Mid Maine, a political action group with a stated goal of “protecting democracy and building community through nonviolent action.” Its members have taken part in protests in the Waterville area.

Elizabeth Leonard, of Waterville, a leader of the group and professor emeritus of history at Colby College in Waterville, brought an orange vest and other items her father, Richard Leonard, a minister, wore when he was in Selma for the marches. The vest had “Unitarian Universalists 50 miles for Freedom” written on it in marker.

“He’s really part of the inspiration for why I’ve always been an activist,” she said of his actions to speak out for the civil rights of Black people.

Before and after watching the documentary on the marchers, attendees sang songs, led by Davis, including making up new lyrics on the spot as they sang the protest anthem “We Shall Not Be Moved.” Lyrics included, “Fighting for our neighbors, we shall not be moved” and “It will take more than Trump to stop us, we shall not be moved.”

Linda Ewing came from Winslow. She said there are so many things going on in the country it made her want to come to be with good people Monday.

She said if King were alive today, “I think he’d feel we’ve done some backsliding,” on civil rights. “But I feel like he’d try to give us hope.”

Randolph Jones, owner of The Playhouse with his wife, Lisa, said they plan to use the space for a live theater troupe and host community events such as movie screenings, comedy shows and lectures.

Some attendees brought articles of winter clothing to donate to people in need. Organizers said it was in honor of King’s 1968 Poor People’s Campaign.