EVENTS
Wednesday-Friday, Jan. 13-15
Students with King
What: The King Center's CEO Bernice A. King has extended an invitation to public, private and charter schools to visit the King Center and engage in dialogue with her, extended King family members and people who knew and worked with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. Panelists will share intimate and personal stories about the lives of the Kings and their journey to nonviolence. Information contact: Barbara Harrison at 404-526-8911 or Demetrius Myatt at 404-526-8966 or programs@thekingcenter.org.
Where: The Yolanda D. King Theatre for the Performing Arts in the King Center, 449 Auburn Ave. N.E., Atlanta.
Times: 10-11:15 a.m. (Session I); 11:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m. (Session II).
Thursday, Jan. 14
What: Building the Beloved Community with Environmental Justice. This forum will engage participants and panelists in a discussion about the importance of environmental justice in building the beloved community. Information contact: Vonnetta West at 404-526-8972 or vwest@thekingcenter.org.
Where: The Yolanda D. King Theatre for the Performing Arts in the King Center, 449 Auburn Ave. N.E., Atlanta.
Time: 6:30-9 p.m. Free and open to the public.
Friday, Jan. 15
What: State of Georgia Martin Luther King Jr. Advisory Council Program at Georgia State Capitol. Gov. Nathan Deal will host a tribute to King, with participation from King Center officials. Xernona Clayton will be the keynote speaker.
Where: State Capitol, North Wing.
Time: 11 a.m.
Information: Barbara Harrison 404-526-8911 or programs@thekingcenter.org.
What: Gospel Concert
Where: Ebenezer Baptist Church (Heritage Sanctuary), 101 Jackson St., Atlanta.
Time: 7 p.m. Free and open to the public.
Information: Rebecca Karcher at rebecca_karcher@nps.gov.
Friday-Saturday, Jan. 15-16
What: Roger Guenveur Smith: Rodney King
History, poetry and tragedy collide when Roger Guenveur Smith tackles the thorny odyssey of Rodney King from the harsh glare of the national spotlight as the victim of police brutality to his lonely death at the bottom of a swimming pool. In this riveting performance, Smith captures the story of a flawed, good-hearted everyman, and reveals America’s endlessly complicated relationship with its racial past and present. Smith’s credits include the films “Do the Right Thing,” “Malcolm X,” “Summer of Sam” and “American Gangster.”
Where: Georgia Tech Ferst Center for the Arts, 349 Ferst Drive N.W., Atlanta.
Time: 8 p.m.
For tickets or more information: arts.gatech.edu/ferstcenter or 404-894-9600.
Saturday, Jan. 16
What: Millennials with King Service Project. In collaboration with Points of Light, the King Center invites young adults and others to participate in this service initiative that will connect King's nonviolent philosophy with an opportunity to provide three hours of service to a metro Atlanta community.
Where: Hope-Hill Elementary School, 112 Boulevard N.E., Atlanta.
Time: 9 a.m.-noon.
Information: Vonnetta West at 404-526-8972 or vwest@thekingcenter.org.
What: The Annual "Salute to Greatness" Awards Gala. This is the King Center's primary fundraising initiative. One of the center's highest honors, the Salute to Greatness Award, is presented at the dinner to recognize national and/or international individuals and corporations that exemplify excellence in their leadership and have demonstrated a commitment to social responsibility in the spirit of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Kevin Frazier from "Entertainment Tonight" and CNN's Kyra Phillips will co-host the event.
Where: Hyatt Regency Hotel, 265 Peachtree St., Atlanta.
Time: Reception: 6 p.m. Dinner and program: 7 p.m. (This is a ticketed event.)
Information: Barbara Harrison at 404-526-8911 or programs@thekingcenter.org.
Monday, Jan. 18
What: The Martin Luther King Jr. Annual Commemorative Service. The spiritual hallmark of the King Holiday Observance. The service is an ecumenical endeavor that is held on the federal holiday. The Rev. William Barber II will be the keynote speaker and Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who heads the U.S. Embassy in Havana, will be a special guest. Gospel recording artist Anthony Brown and Heavenly Joy Jerkins will perform.
Where: Ebenezer Baptist Church — Horizon Sanctuary, 101 Jackson St., Atlanta.
Time: 10 a.m. Free and open to the public (limited seating).
Information: Barbara Harrison at 404-526-8911 or programs@thekingcenter.org.
What: King Week Holiday March & Rally. The march will go along Auburn Avenue, Peachtree Street and Jackson Street. The rally will be held on Auburn Avenue and focus on education, technology, medicine, investment, transportation, housing, environmental justice, job creation, conflict resolution, interfaith and cultural exchange, peace, justice and voter registration.
Time: 2 p.m.
Information: Cleo Orange at 404-614-3233 or cleoorange@bellsouth.net.
This year marks 30 years since Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first observed as a national holiday. The King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, which lobbied for the holiday under the leadership of the late Coretta Scott King, is the custodian of the holiday and has scheduled more than a week’s worth of activities that kicked off last Wednesday and conclude with a 2 p.m. march on Jan. 18 through King’s old neighborhood.
Pausing from her hectic schedule, Bernice A. King, King’s younger daughter and CEO of the King Center, sat down to talk briefly with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution about the holiday and the meaning of her father.
King would have been 87 years old on Friday, Jan. 15.
Q: How is this year’s celebration of King Day different or special?
A: Well, the Rev. Billy Barber is coming. (Barber, the architect behind the Moral Monday campaign that started in North Carolina and grew nationally, will be the keynote speaker at the annual commemorative service.) I had an opportunity to hear him speak in Selma during a Bloody Sunday event. He was amazing. We are looking forward to him coming and firing us up. I was thinking about last year with Gwendolyn Boyd (last year's speaker and first black president of Alabama State University), when she said, "Bring it. Bring it." I said, "Now, 'Who is going to top that?'" I think Barber is going to top it. Another one of the great highlights is having Jeffrey DeLaurentis, who heads the U.S. Embassy in Havana, since we now have restored diplomatic relations with Cuba. I think it is very important to get him. Ultimately for us, me, I think nonviolence triumphs in the end. It is not one way. It is the best way for creating respectful relations and relationships where you can work together. So DeLaurentis, and Barber, being here is going to speak volumes on the King holiday.
Q: One of the themes you are working with is housing, particularly fair housing. Why is that so important to you?
A: Fifty years ago, Daddy went to Chicago to bring attention to the deplorable housing conditions that, at that time, Negroes were living in. And to focus attention to open and fair housing. That is when the whole economic agenda for him and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference began to unfold. If you think about violence, in particular physical violence, oftentimes there is a correlation between that and some of these economic inequities. If you look at Ferguson (Mo.) … the unemployment rate there, the opportunities there, and the financial services that they lack in that area all contribute to an environment of frustration. People need to live in circumstances where they feel they can prosper and do well. Most people want to do it legally, but if something else comes along that is a lure that can give them the opportunity to enjoy life in a way where they don't have to hustle and struggle working three to four jobs, they are going to take that route, unfortunately. I see a kinship between economic injustice and violence. This is the beginning of looking at this.
Q: You mentioned Ferguson. Take a look at America roughly since Ferguson with the police shootings and killings of unarmed black men or the massacre at Mother Emanuel in Charleston, S.C. What have you seen through the prism of your work at the King Center and through your father’s legacy?
A: I have embraced it very meditatively. I believe we have one of the best ways to help to turn the tide. What we know from my father and what we seek to educate and train people in can transform many of these communities that are dealing with strife and tension. I hold true to that. Every time it happens, I say to myself, "God, I wish there was a way to reach this set of people." It is so enormous that you can't get to everybody. So I am meditating, trying to figure out what is the strategy for meeting the right people with this so they can reach others. Inevitably, it is going to come back to Dr. King. In his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, my father said: "I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant." What he was saying is no matter how much hate increases in the universe, it will never win in the end. Love will always prevail. I know no matter how violent we become, how much fear and hate and hostility we might dish out, ultimately nonviolence is going to arrest us. We can't talk about peace and still rage war. We can't address violence with violence.
Q: Speaking of violence, last week President Barack Obama made his strongest pitch toward curbing gun violence in America. You, like many other families, particularly black families, know personally the horrors of gun violence, having lost two family members to it. (Aside from her father’s assassination in 1968, Bernice King’s grandmother was shot and killed at Ebenezer Baptist Church in 1974.) What are your thoughts on what the president is proposing?
A: I think it is necessary and essential to put some further restrictions and controls in place. I also think that he is the president that was given a lemon and having to make lemonade. We have been dealing with gun issues for a long time, since Brady (James Brady, the White House press secretary who was wounded during the 1981 assassination attempt on President Ronald Reagan). And my mother was heavily involved. Had we followed some of the things that he was talking about today some 30 years ago, we wouldn't be in the situation we are in today. One of the things I would like us to consider is there ought to be a restriction on the number of guns you can buy. It makes no sense to me that if we are concerned about guns getting into the wrong hands, then the more you have, the more likely that that is going to happen. It almost speaks to the inhumanness of humanity. I respect the person's right who feels like he needs one, but I wish we lived in a world where we really didn't need them.
Q: It has been 30 years since the first national holiday was observed in 1986. Today, 30 years into this holiday, are we where you thought this country would be when it started?
A: I was 23 at the time and I don't even know how conscious I was. But we are certainly not where I hoped we would be. Living in this environment of King and these teachings, you always hope that more and more people embrace truly the message as something that they incorporate into their lives. That is always the hope. You are always looking for more people coming to that enlightenment and understanding. If anything else, that was my hope. So I am troubled and saddened and have somewhat of a heavy heart, because I never expected us to live in a world where little children can be senselessly killed. And where little children are finding their way to guns, killing other kids. I never imagined the innocence of childhood being robbed that way.
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