Dangerous, icy roads has led to dozens of school closings in southern Wisconsin and cancellations of events, inclouding the annual MLK Youth Service Day. But organizers of the 32nd Annual Madison & Dane County King Holiday Observance have announced that their event will still go on as planned tonight at the Overture Center in downtown Madison.
Author, educator, and historian Dr. Mary Frances Berry will be the keynote speaker for the annual event tonight. For over four decades, Dr. Berry has been a leader in social justice movements. She served over the course of four presidential administrations as chairperson of the United States Civil Rights Commission. She is the first woman of any race to head a major research university. Dr. Berry was instrumental in raising global awareness and helping to end over 40 years of apartheid. Her most recent book, Power in Words: The Stories behind Barack Obama’s Speeches, from the State House to the White House, offers insight and historical context of President Obama’s most memorable speeches.
more ice is expected to accumulate throughout the day.
The ceremony will also feature the presentation of the City-County Humanitarian Award honoring the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This year, Rev. Everett Mitchell and Dr. Rev. Carmen Porco will be honored for the award, selected by the City-County Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commission, for community members who reflect the values of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“As a young kid, I never saw myself as going to college but during a trip to Atlanta somebody showed me the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on the Morehouse campus and it was of him pointing in a direction that captured my consciousness and imagination,” Mitchell tells Madison365. “It made me feel like I had a dream or something to fight for.
“All of us are guided by the principles of the ‘beloved community’ and are ‘inescapably intertwined together in a single garment of destiny’ and know that ‘injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,’” continued Mitchell, quoting Dr. King. “Those are not just statements but those are values that I have tried to embody and live out in everyday life.”
Freedom Songs by the MLK Community Choir will start at 5 p.m. followed by the program at 6 p.m.
