{"id":18367,"date":"2026-01-22T19:50:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:50:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=18367"},"modified":"2026-01-22T19:50:44","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T19:50:44","slug":"the-toledo-branch-of-the-naacp-holds-rev-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/22\/the-toledo-branch-of-the-naacp-holds-rev-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-day\/","title":{"rendered":"The Toledo Branch of the NAACP Holds Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Speaker Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of NAACP Detroit Branch Pastor Fellowship Chapel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By Dawn Scotland
\nThe Truth Reporter<\/p>\n

The Toledo Branch NAACP held a celebration of MLK Day on Monday, January 19, at Macedonia Baptist Church. The theme for the event was \u201cThe Fierce Urgency of Now: \u201cMission Impossible\u201d and featured speaker Wendell Anthony, DMin, of NAACP Detroit Branch and Pastor of Fellowship Chapel Detroit, Michigan.<\/p>\n

The Opening and Welcome were provided by Monita Mungo, EdD, second vice president of\u00a0NAACP Toledo and Darlene Newbern, president of NAACP Toledo followed by\u00a0the Black National Anthem sung by Nicole Wilson.<\/p>\n

Pastor Otis Gordon of St. Stephens AME Church presented the scripture reading and Bishop Pat McKinstry of Worship Center led the prayer for education, hurting families and social justice while Pastor Calvin Sweeney, pastor of Tabernacle Church followed with prayer for political, economic equality and leadership.<\/p>\n

The Community Choir of Toledo gave the powerful praise and worship and\u00a0Davion Williams, president, NAACP Toledo Youth Council performed a spoken word\u00a0piece.<\/p>\n

Presentations were given by Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz, Representative Marcy\u00a0Kaptur, Lucas County Commissioner Anita Lopez and City Councilwoman Cerssandra\u00a0Mcpherson.<\/p>\n

The Introduction of the speaker was given by Pastor Doc Kelly, pastor of Macedonia\u00a0Baptist Church and Nicole Wilson sang \u201cPrecious Lord Take My Hand.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Speaker for the afternoon was Rev. Wendell Anthony President, DMin, NAACP\u00a0Detroit Branch Pastor, Fellowship Chapel.<\/p>\n

Closing Remarks were given by Verna Chears, Special Events chairperson and the Benediction by Rev. Wendell Anthony. The Benediction Song, \u201cWe Shall Overcome\u201d\u00a0was led by Fellowship Community Choir of Toledo\u00a0Rev. Wendell Anthony has served as the Pastor of Fellowship Chapel since\u00a0December 1986. Through its James E. Wadsworth, Jr. Community Center, Fellowship\u00a0Chapel has a full-time outreach ministry with programs ranging from health and\u00a0wellness, youth mentoring and development and job training.<\/p>\n

\"\"Rev. Anthony is the developer of the Isuthu Institute (Coming into Manhood Rites of\u00a0Passage Program) for boys ages six – 18, dealing with African American male\u00a0responsibility. It is one of the oldest mentoring programs of its kind in the country. He\u00a0also initiated its female counterpart, the Intonjane Institute (Coming into Womanhood\u00a0Rites of Passage Program) for girls ages six -18.<\/p>\n

Currently, Rev. Anthony is a member of the NAACP National Board of\u00a0Directors. In addition, he is serving his 17th term as president of the Detroit Branch\u00a0NAACP, a position he has held for 30 years. The Detroit Branch NAACP is the largest\u00a0branch in the country. It hosts the largest sit-down dinner in the nation, bringing at least\u00a010,000 persons to gather every year to celebrate and commemorate the struggle for\u00a0social justice, freedom, and equality.<\/p>\n

He is the founder of the Freedom Institute for Economic, Social Justice, and People Empowerment, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, which also sponsors the annual Freedom Weekend in the city of Detroit. He is also the founder of the Fannie Lou Hamer Political Action Committee, a grassroots community-oriented organization which\u00a0supports issues and candidates often overlooked by those in the traditional political\u00a0arena.<\/p>\n

Reverend Anthony is the originator of the Take Your Souls to the Polls voter registration\u00a0and mobilization program. He is also the recipient of numerous awards and recognition,\u00a0locally and nationally. Among them are the Samuel Dewitt Proctor Conference How\u00a0Beautiful Are Thy Feet Award and the 2021 NAACP Image Award for Activist of the\u00a0Year.<\/p>\n

Special Events Committee: Pastor Jon Talbert, Cynthia Dye, Dr. Monita Mungo, and\u00a0Verna Chears\u00a0Sponsors for MLK Day 2026: Lucas County Children Services and Buckeye\u00a0Broadband.<\/p>\n

\"\"Upcoming events for the Toledo NAACP:<\/p>\n

Black History Month Prayer Breakfast<\/p>\n

February 16, 2026 9am – 12:00 pm<\/p>\n

Frederick Douglass Community Center<\/p>\n

1001 Indiana Ave. Toledo, Ohio 43607<\/p>\n

Juneteenth Celebration<\/p>\n

June 19, 2026 9:00 am – 1:00 pm<\/p>\n

Wayman Palmer YMCA<\/p>\n

200 E. Bancroft St Toledo, Ohio 43620<\/p>\n

To learn more about the Toledo Branch NAACP visit their website naacptoledo.org or<\/p>\n

Facebook page.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Dawn Scotland The Truth Reporter The Toledo Branch NAACP held a celebration of MLK Day on Monday, January 19, at Macedonia Baptist Church. The theme for the event was \u201cThe Fierce Urgency of Now: \u201cMission Impossible\u201d and featured speaker Wendell Anthony, DMin, of NAACP Detroit Branch and Pastor of Fellowship Chapel Detroit, Michigan. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18371,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[250,17],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[331],"class_list":["post-18367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-local"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18367"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18367\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18372,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18367\/revisions\/18372"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18371"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18367"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=18367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}