Things to do on Martin Luther King Day
Very cold weather is in the forecast for Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday — but events honoring the slain civil rights activist will go forward.
Among them:
Annual march at Hampton University
Hampton University will host its popular Martin Luther King Jr. March.
The march will begin at 10 a.m. near the Emancipation Oak, with students and guests walking to Memorial Church, where a program of speeches, prayer and music honoring King begins at 11 a.m.
The keynote address will be given by Bishop Derek T. Triplett, the founding pastor of Hope Fellowship Church in Daytona Beach, Fla., and the chief executive of Relate Coaching and Consulting.
“He has spent over 20 years in pastoral ministry and over 25 years preaching the Gospel in a powerful and profound manner,” the school said in a press release.
The event — free and open to the public — is sponsored by the HU student government, the school’s Office of Student Activities and the HU chapter of the NAACP.
Dedication of new King plaza
A brand new outdoor walkway at the Hampton Roads Convention Center — the “Martin Luther King Jr. and Hampton Heroes Memorial Plaza” — will be dedicated at 1 p.m.
(The ceremony will be indoors because of the cold weather forecast.)
The memorial, at 1610 Coliseum Drive in Hampton, celebrates King and other notables who have worked to accomplish social change and justice in the city.
Hampton Mayor Donnie Tuck recently revealed the names of 28 people who will grace walkway panels at the inaugural dedication.
Contrabands — Enslaved Journey to Freedom: Frank Baker, Shepard Mallory, James Townsend, Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler, James A. Fields, George Washington Fields, Mary S. Peake, William Roscoe Davis and Gerri L. Hollins.
Hidden Figures: Katherine G. Johnson, Mary W. Jackson, Christine M. Darden, Dorothy J. Vaughan, Miriam D. Mann, T. Melvin Butler, and Margot Lee Shetterly.
Public School Integration: State Sen. Hunter B. Andrews, C. Alton Lindsay, Dr. Jerome H. Holland, Robert A. Rice, Del. Mary T. Christian, Mary E. Johnson and William M. Cooper.
Founding of Hampton Institute: Gen. Samuel C. Armstrong, the Rev. George Whipple, the Rev. Lewis C. Lockwood, Booker T. Washington and Robert Russa Moton.
More names will be added in later years.
Volunteering for service projects
Volunteers will gather at two local churches — Zion Baptist Church at 633 20th St. in Newport News and Memorial Baptist Church at 317 Lee St. in Hampton — to serve the community on Monday.
Some volunteers will build gardening boxes for “Mission Continues,” a national veterans organization.
Others will do painting, caulking, cleaning and light carpentry at community resource centers at both churches. The centers will be used for jobs classes, social media training and culinary classes.
The program — which has room for more volunteers — is called “A Day On, Not a Day Off.”
A coalition of pastors and churches has been meeting under the name “Project Strength and Spirit” to “enhance the economic vitality of the community” and sustain the new Piggy Wiggly Supermarket on Jefferson Avenue.
Through Jan. 21, shoppers can purchase an MLK Day bag of food for $5, with the food donated to “Thrive Peninsula” to serve local residents.
“It’s gone better than we thought — so far about 150 bags have been purchased,” said the Rev. Charles Cheek, the community networking director for the Peninsula Baptist Association. “We want to make sure (Piggly Wiggly) is able to maintain its profitability so the community doesn’t become a food desert again.”