City’s MLK events start Sunday
I n 1 9 8 3 , President Ronald Reagan signed a bill establishing the third M o n d a y i n January as a national holiday to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The law went into effect three years later.
For many years after that, it bothered Retha Lowe, a former city commissioner, that Lake Worth wasn’t doing anything to honor the slain civil rights leader.
“All the other cities seemed to be doing something,” says Lowe, 71. So she did something about it. In the late 1980s, Lowe, along with a handful of community residents, got together and started an MLK celebration of their own in the neighborhood where Lowe lives.
It was small. Looked more like a block party than a celebration of a man who had a Kevin D. Thompson profound impact on our nation. The neighborhood event was held for about five years.
But Lowe wasn’t satisfied. She kept telling city officials that L ake Worth needed to do more. They listened. That was 23 years ago. The city’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration has been going strong ever since and is now a citywide affair.
“It’s become one of our signature events,” says Lowe, who served as commissioner from 1995 to 2007.
The t wo- day c e l e brat i on starts Sunday with a musical/ theatrical tribute to Langston Hughes at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church at 3 p.m.
Things kick into high gear the next day with a Unity Interfaith Breakfast at 9 a.m. at St. Andrew’s; a civil rights songfest on the steps of City Hall at 4:30 p.m.; a Candlelight March at 5:30 p.m.; an MLK commemorative program at the Cultural Plaza at 5:30 p.m.; and a Fellowship Dinner from 6 to 8 p.m. at St. Andrew’s.
All activities are free.
F o r t h o s e who can’t wait until Jan. 15-16 t o p ay t h e i r MLK respects, there’s always t h e 1 8 t h annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration on Thursday at Palm Beach State College, west of Lake Worth.
Michael Eric Dyson, a noted African-American scholar who is no stranger to the black community, is scheduled to be the keynote speaker.
Dyson is a sociology professor at Georgetown University.
The event is free, but PBSC is asking those interested in attending to RSVP at www.palmbeachstate.edu/MLK.