King birthday events set in Fort Smith, Fayetteville

— A parade in downtown Fort Smith on Saturday was the first of a series of events in Fort Smith and Fayetteville celebrating the birthday of civil-rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The Fort Smith Martin Luther King Jr. Planning Committee’s activities will culminate Jan. 21, which is the federal observance of King’s birthday and will witness the second inauguration of President Barack Obama, America’s first black president.

With Parade Marshal Euba Winton in the lead, a band, color guards, marching cheerleaders, public officials, church groups and social clubs marched down Garrison Avenue from Seventh to 13th streets before a crowd of about 100 on a damp and windy Saturday afternoon.

Winton was being honored as one of the organizing members of the committee more than 25 years ago and as a leader in the black community for many years, committee spokesman Deborah Woodard said.

Woodard said she believed that the parade and other activities planned for this week are important to honor King and his contribution to the freedoms that not only blacks but all Americansenjoy today.

“Dr. King opened a lot of doors for everyone: women, minorities, all people,” she said.

And the parade and programs are important to young people, too, who may take their freedoms for granted and not appreciate the struggle earlier generations endured to obtain them, she said.

“We cannot ever forget Martin Luther King, and our children should not forget,” she said.

Danielle Wood, president of the Northwest Arkansas Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Council, said observing King’s birthday helps remind us of his true legacy:“to ensure we can live together in the community as one and follow his philosophy of education, commitment and leadership.”

Also participating in the parade were District 78 state Rep.-elect George McGill, DFort Smith; former District 65 state Rep. Tracy Pennartz, D-Fort Smith; Fort Smith Mayor Sandy Sanders; University of Arkansas at Fort Smith Chancellor Paul Beran; and Miss UAFS, Savannah Valentine.

The committee revived the parade this year for its 15th edition after dropping it last year in favor of other activities, such as education programs at UAFS. Committee Chairman Karen James said that the committee believed that the 2012 programs would be a more meaningful way to observe King’s birthday and that they were wellattended.

But Woodard said the committee received feedback that the community liked the parade and wanted it back. So, she said, the committee decided to have the parade and continue to put on programs.

On Jan. 21, festivities in Fort Smith will begin at 7:30 a.m. with a breakfast in the Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center on the UAFS campus.

After the breakfast, several programs will held on campus, presented by university employees and members of the King planning committee, Woodard said.

One of those programs will be a lecture by Winton on how far America has come since King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, Woodard said.

Participants will have a chance to participate in a march on campus that will circle the campus bell tower, after which marchers will return to the campus center to watch Obama’s inauguration on big-screen televisions.

In Fayetteville, King birthday observances on Jan. 21 are scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. with a Dream Keepers Breakfast in the Janelle Y. Hembree Alumni House, followed by youth activities at the HPER Building on the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville campus, according to a UA news release.

A march at 11:15 a.m. will leave the Walton Arts Center parking lot and finish at the Verizon Ballroom in the Arkansas Union, the release stated. A noon vigil follows the march in the ballroom.

The 17th annual Community Recommitment Banquet is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Fayetteville Town Center. Among the speakers, according to the release, will be Fayetteville Mayor Lioneld Jordan and Sharon Orlopp, global chief diversity officer and senior vice president of Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

The day’s events in Fayetteville will be sponsored by the Northwest Arkansas Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.Commission and the University of Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Committee.

Other events through the week are:

A prayer service of the Fort Smith Ministerial Alliance at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at First Baptist-Missionary Baptist Church at 3110 Kelley Highway.

Fort Smith Martin Luther King Jr. Planning Committeeannual banquet at 7 p.m. Saturday in the Reynolds Room at the UAFS Smith-Pendergraft Campus Center.

A memorial program on King’s message at 3 p.m. Jan. 20 at St. James Missionary Baptist Church in Fayetteville.

A panel discussion on King’s contributions at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 22 in the UAFS campus center’s Reynolds Room in Fort Smith.

Northwest Arkansas, Pages 11 on 01/13/2013

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