Brescia University, in partnership with the Owensboro Human Relations Commission, will host a Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration on January 16.
The event will begin with a march that starts at 9 a.m. at Owensboro High School and will conclude at Taylor Lecture Hall on Brescia’s campus, were the celebration will take place at 10 a.m. This event is free and open to the public.
“We do this event annually for many reasons,” said Jaklyn Hill, OHRC Executive Director. “Not only is it a wonderful celebration of, and tribute to, the triumphs and tribulations of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement; it also serves as a platform for our community to come together to recognize our progress and address present issues in our community and hold conversations of community growth with the principles of peace, love, nonviolence, and unity that Dr. King and his movement instilled in us.”
The program titled “Celebrating Black History & Unity in Our Community” will have a number of community members speaking, including Mayor Tom Watson and Judge-Executive Charlie Castlen. The keynote speaker will be Chris Singleton.
Singleton is a former minor league baseball player drafted by the Chicago Cubs and is now an inspirational speaker who has been featured on ESPN, E:60, Sports Illustrated magazine, and USA Today. Singleton’s mother was murdered along with eight other victims at Mother Emmanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015, by a white supremacist. Singleton has become a nationally renowned speaker with a message of resilience, for forgiveness and unity following his mother’s death.
Singleton engages his audience through his personal experiences of adversity and his belief that God can guide you through any storm. His overall mission when speaking is to inspire his audiences with his story of resilience and to unite millions of people.
Other events in the community to honor MLK Jr. include an NAACP program which will be held January 15 at 3 p.m. at Zion Baptist Church. The speaker will be The Rev. Ricky Hill, Pastor of 7th Street Baptist Church in Henderson.
