Living LegacyAwards honor 3 for service to community
Three community leaders were honored at the 16th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Living Legacy Awards breakfast, held April 8 at the Four Points by Sheraton Little Rock Midtown. The event was presented by the Central Arkansas Sphinx Foundation in conjunction with the Pi Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity.
Honorees were the Rev. Ronnie Miller Yow, pastor of Wesley Chapel United Methodist Church; John Miller with the Little Rock Chapter of 100 Black Men; and the Little Rock chapter of Links Inc., whose president, Gloria Love, accepted on behalf of the organization.
Alvin Peer was master of ceremonies for a program that included comments from foundation president Rodney Williams and chapter president Reginald Jackson. The breakfast was highlighted by a speech by Raye Montague, who as a U.S. Navy employee is credited with revolutionizing naval ship design by using a computer.
Montague — recognized anew in the wake of the release of Hidden Figures, the Oscar-nominated film about black female scientists at NASA during the Space Race — drew three standing ovations as she spoke of her journey to realizing her lifelong dream of working as an engineer against odds having to do largely with race and sex.
She exhorted the honorees to share their figurative wealth. “To all who are honored today — we are very fortunate. We owe [it] to the world to reach back and open doors.”
Also recognized at the event were three foundation scholarship recipients: Joshua Murdock, Jaylon Sargent (in absentia) and Korey Pointer Jr., awarded $5,000, $1,000 and $500, respectively.
The breakfast raised an estimated $3,500 for the foundation, whose programs include the scholarships.