{"id":7273,"date":"2023-01-19T13:04:51","date_gmt":"2023-01-19T13:04:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=7273"},"modified":"2023-01-19T13:04:51","modified_gmt":"2023-01-19T13:04:51","slug":"city-wide-mlk-celebration-tributes-to-dr-martin-luther-king-jr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2023\/01\/19\/city-wide-mlk-celebration-tributes-to-dr-martin-luther-king-jr\/","title":{"rendered":"City-wide MLK Celebration: Tributes to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Presidents of the five Black sororities and fraternities<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By\u00a0Tricia Hall<\/strong><\/em>
\nThe Truth Reporter<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The City of Toledo’s Human Relations Commission (HRC) collaborated with multiple community-based\u00a0agencies to organize a multi-day acknowledgement and celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.<\/p>\n

The festivities commenced with a Multifaith Universal Service on Monday, January 9 starting at 6:00 p.m. and continued with a\u00a0full schedule of activities referred to as the MLK Experience. Those events began on\u00a0Friday, January 13 and concluded on Monday, January 16, 2023. The observations included faith-based experiences, expression experiences\u00a0and economic focused\u00a0experiences.<\/p>\n

The MLK Experience weekend began with a\u00a0Friday night poetry experience\u00a0held at Lucille’s Jazz Lounge, located at 1447 Summit St,\u00a0and featured local artists of various spoken word styles.<\/p>\n

The festivities continued by calling on Toledo residents to\u00a0support\u00a0two local\u00a0black-owned businesses on Friday and Saturday. In partnership with HRC, Jera’s Heavenly Sweets and The Onyx Cafe offered a free select menu item for patrons over the two-day period. Jera’s,\u00a0located at 3059 W Bancroft, offered a free cookie to patrons, while\u00a0The Onyx Caf\u00e9, located at 27 Broadway Street off Ottawa,\u00a0offered patrons\u00a0free coffee.<\/p>\n

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The scholars honored by the Alphas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Jera’s Heavenly Sweets is conveniently located in the shopping plaza near the University of Toledo. Jera Stewart moved into the location in January 2021, during the height of the pandemic, and opened for business in September 2021.<\/p>\n

“I’m excited to have a thriving business at this stage of\u00a0my life. The dream works. I thank the City of Toledo for allowing us to participate. We have seen many new faces over these last two days that didn’t know the business existed,” shared Jera Stewart, owner of Jera’s Heavenly Sweets.<\/p>\n

Saturday’s festivities also included\u00a0the 31st annual MLK Scholarship Breakfast hosted by the men of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated, Alpha Xi Lambda Chapter. The annual\u00a0brunch raises scholarship dollars for local young men, spotlights a notable community leader and\u00a0features\u00a0an\u00a0inspirational guest speaker.<\/p>\n

The program opened with greetings from the\u00a0event mistress of ceremonies, Kristian Brown of 13ABC\u00a0news, a singing of the Negro National Anthem led by instrumentalist Mike Williams, invocation by Elder David Young and words from Sharon Speyer of the presenting sponsor Huntington Bank.<\/p>\n

Immediately following breakfast, Tina Butts of The Movement Toledo Lucas County was awarded the coveted Drum Major for Justice Award.<\/p>\n

“If you know Tina, then you know she is The Movement. Her efforts registered voters and led an effort for people to receive the COVID vaccine,” shared Brown during the award introduction.<\/p>\n

Tina Butts and The Movement Team advocate and assist the\u00a0underprivileged. They led a COVID-19 vaccine awareness campaign, are working with Greenbelt Place Apartments and partner with several local partners including the local Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity chapter and\u00a0Connecting Kids to Meals.<\/p>\n

“The women in this community are really out there and supportive. I have also received support and protection from the brothers in our community. We are The Movement,” shared Butts during the opening remarks of her acceptance speech.<\/p>\n

The 31st annual scholarship breakfast’s featured keynote speaker was Brian Dawkins, a\u00a0Pro Football Hall of Fame class of 2018, who also had his Eagles #20 jersey retired in 2012. “I am humbled by this opportunity and I want to thank everyone that made this possible. Hopefully something that I say here will encourage somebody to move. There are ways that your greatness is being kept from the world, whether it’s your environment, family or etc. You can overcome it,” shared Dawkins.<\/p>\n

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Transformation Church Pastor Brandon Tucker<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Additionally, five\u00a0deserving young men were awarded scholarships.\u00a0The fraternity’s local chapter has awarded more than 120 scholarships to local men. Jaiden Butler attends St. John’s High School, is active in several groups including School Ambassadors, maintains a 3.57 GPA, is considering three colleges including Ohio State University and plans to study science.<\/p>\n

Malik Dawson attends Springfield High School and is currently the field commander for the marching band, maintains a 2.76 GPA, was accepted to Xavier University and plans to study music.<\/p>\n

Cameron Knabbs currently attends Woodward high school, is earning college credits at Owens Community College, maintains a 4.0 GPA, is this year’s Homecoming King,\u00a0has played varsity basketball for three years and\u00a0plans to attend North Carolina A&T to study computer science.<\/p>\n

Noah Langford attends Central Catholic High School, maintains a 3.5 GPA, and has remained on the honor roll since his freshman year.<\/p>\n

Benjamin Williams attends Ottawa Hills High School, maintains a 3.68 GPA,\u00a0and is active in several causes including Books for Buddies.<\/p>\n

In addition to the funds raised by the fraternity, presenting sponsor Huntington Bank matched each individual scholarship that was announced. The fraternity also donated to the Toledo Public School Foundation and Executive Director Ashley Yoakem accepted the check.<\/p>\n

“The brothers and I are looking forward to the future and we’re not okay with just an annual scholarship. The brothers and I are donating $2,500 to Write The Future campaign, because this is about our community’s children,” shared Rev. John Jones.<\/p>\n

Day two of the MLK Experience featured a\u00a0Sunday\u00a0day of worship at\u00a0two local faith-based institutions that each inspired their congregations and online Facebook viewers. The historic\u00a0St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church began service at 10:45 a.m. and Transformation Church started service at 11:30 a.m.<\/p>\n

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Rev. John Jones, Tina Butts, Calvin Burney<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

St. Paul Missionary Baptist Church\u00a0located at 1502 N Detroit and is under the leadership of Rev. James Willis, DMin. The service began with spirit-filled praise and worship led by church deacons, scripture, responsive reading and congregational hymn.\u00a0The service incorporated special moments to commemorate the\u00a0occasion.\u00a0Dr. King’s\u00a0favorite\u00a0scripture\u00a0Psalm 23:1-6 was read, a presentation of Dr. King was performed by\u00a0Mikayla Evans, inserts from Dr. King’s speech, “I Have a Dream\u201d speech were delivered by Celina Winfield and Rev. Willis spoke from Exodus 14:10-14 and drew inspiration from Dr. King’s life.<\/p>\n

“Today is special to me because it’s Dr. King’s birthday and my mother’s birthday. My mother who attends every Sunday online from\u00a0Mississippi is 96 years old. I look forward to our younger generations embracing the work done by Dr. King and I look forward to the time when society\u00a0will remember and celebrate the advantages made possible by Dr. King not just today or this weekend but every day,” shared Rev. Willis.<\/p>\n

Transformation Church, located at 5444 Airport Hwy, is under the leadership of Pastor Brandon Tucker. Guests were welcomed at the door as soulful renditions of praise, worship and Christian music filled the sanctuary. The praise and worship team, accompanied by a drummer and keyboardist harmonized various selections before the Pastor Tucker gave words to inspire the congregation and Facebook viewers.<\/p>\n

“As we think about Dr. King and think about what he did as a blue print in today’s time. Dr. King was talked about, and second guessed as he stood up for others. Your light has to shine at our jobs and with our families. People will dim your light so don’t let other people affect us. Be focused in 2023,” shared Pastor Tucker.<\/p>\n

The third day of the MLK Experience on\u00a0Monday, January 16 began\u00a0with a Unity Day Celebration that was held virtually and continued with\u00a0an\u00a0entire day of events\u00a0to celebrate MLK Day at the Toledo Museum of Art.<\/p>\n

The Unity Day Celebration began at 10:00 am with a conversation featuring Chuck Ealey. The celebration continued with the National Anthem and Negro National Anthem, greetings from dignitaries and\u00a0featured Keynote Speaker Bree Newsome. Additionally, the virtual celebration \u00a0included\u00a0special performances by The My5tery Music Band, J.P. Dynasty, United Vision Choir, Toledo Opera, spoken artists and\u00a0musicians.<\/p>\n

“Thank you for joining us. The University of Toledo is proud to partner with the City of Toledo to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr,” said\u00a0Gregory Postel, MD,\u200b\u200bUniversity of Toledo president\u00a0during a welcome address.<\/p>\n

“Welcome to the 2023 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr celebration. The City of Toledo and Human Relations Commission for once again partnering with the University of Toledo’s 22nd annual community event. Thank you for tuning in to this virtual event,” shared\u00a0Toledo Mayor Wade\u00a0Kapszukiewicz\u00a0during a welcome address.<\/p>\n

The Museum’s celebration opened with a performance from BGSU Voices Choir, free screening of SELMA, touring of featured African American artwork and featured guest speaker Calvin Burney, EdD,\u00a0a\u00a0developer of youth empowerment\u00a0and\u00a0\u200bsuperintendent of Rise and Shine Academy which is located in North Toledo.<\/p>\n

The history of Martin Luther King Jr. Day centers around the actual birthday of the civic right icon, which is January 15, 1929. To commemorate his legacy, the third Monday of January was approved as a federal holiday in 1983 and by 2000 all 50 states made it a state government holiday. South Carolina was the last state to ratify the date. The King Center in Atlanta outlined the chronological history and efforts behind this effort. Dr. King would have been 93 this weekend.<\/p>\n