Fifty-three years after Dr. Martin Luther King\u2019s assassination, and 38 years after his birth date became a national federal holiday, America is now facing another pivotal moment of national racial reckoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While parades and other festive gatherings for the heroic civil rights leader will not occur this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, national and local organizations throughout the country still will honor Dr. King\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Florida, the Dr. Martin Luther King Celebration Committee of St. Johns County<\/a> will host the 36th annual Commemorative Event in the Lewis Auditorium in St. Augustine, FL and online as a virtual event in a celebration of the memory of Dr. King and the influence he had in the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964.<\/p>\n\n\n\n NNPA President and CEO, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., is the featured speaker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dr. Chavis will address the theme, \u201cOur Lives Begin to End the Day We Become Silent about Things That Matter.\u201d Chavis stated, \u201cDr. King\u2019s dream and courage for freedom, justice and equality for all must reaffirmed and practiced in 2021 across America and throughout the world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Presidential Inaugural Committee is hosting \u201cUnited We Serve: A Celebration of the National MLK Day of Service.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Participants include the Rev. Dr. Bernice King; Martin Luther King III; Chesca; Rep. Sharice Davids, D-Kan.; Rosario Dawson; Andra Day; Yo-Yo Ma; the Rev. Al Sharpton; Sean Patrick Thomas; Diane Warren; Lynn Whitfield; and Bebe Winans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The event will be streamed live on at bideninaugural.org<\/a> and on PIC social media platforms such as YouTube<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Facebook<\/a> from 8:00\u20139:00 p.m. Eastern on Jan. 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis year\u2019s inauguration will look different amid the pandemic, so we\u2019re committed to providing dynamic programming that will engage more Americans than ever before, all from the safety of their homes,\u201d said PIC CEO Tony Allen in a news release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWith the help of popular musicians and artists, rising stars, national, state and local leaders, and everyday Americans, we\u2019re going to celebrate our diversity, honor those who are committed to service, and reflect on our history. We will come together as one nation, America united.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Houston, the 43rd Annual Original MLK Day Virtual Experience & Live Parade of Giving occurs at MacGregor Park at 5225 Calhoun Road. There, residents are asked to drop-off donations to be distributed to those in need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Pennsylvania, the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank <\/a>celebrates Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s legacy with its \u201cFood justice is social justice\u201d campaign.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The food bank will open one of its warehouses to 30 volunteers to prepare food for distribution across the organization\u2019s 11-county service area from 9 a.m. to noon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Atlanta, the Beloved Community Commemorative Service<\/a> caps a weeklong celebration of Dr. King\u2019s life that features a keynote address by Bishop T.D. Jakes. The event occurs online and features remarks from Grammy-winning gospel artist Kirk Franklin and U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The event will stream on Facebook and The King Center website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In California, Stanford University\u2019s four-day online festival honoring Dr. King\u2019s life and legacy culminates on the holiday with musical performances, documentary films, and conversations inspired by the question, Where do we go from here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI hope the King Holiday can become an occasion for informing people about King\u2019s legacy and how it relates to the King Institute, but more broadly, how it relates to the San Francisco Bay Area,\u201d Clayborne Carson, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Centennial Professor of History, Emeritus, at Stanford, and director of the King Institute, told the university\u2019s news service<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne of the things that will be made clear is that the King family has had a very special relationship with this area and with Stanford.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Detroit, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History hosts film screenings and other programming that includes a museum-wide live stream of the keynote speech by PBS White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Rev. Dr. Bernice King posted a heartfelt thank you on Twitter to all those observing her late father\u2019s holiday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThank you for the loving, sincere ways that you honored and celebrated my father on his birthday,\u201d Bernice King wrote in the post that included a photo of her, her father, and her mother.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Fifty-three years after Dr. Martin Luther King\u2019s assassination, and 38 years after his birth date became a national federal holiday, America is now facing another pivotal moment of national racial reckoning. While parades and other festive gatherings for the heroic civil rights leader will not occur this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, national and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[378,1425,1132],"class_list":["post-2456","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-covid-19","tag-dr-benjamin-f-chavis-jr","tag-dr-martin-luther-king-jr","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2456"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2457,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2456\/revisions\/2457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/apexsamplework.com\/insightnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}