REMEMBERING THE DRUM MAJOR FOR JUSTICE

Prayer breakfast honors King's legacy, his dreams

A Who's Who of political, civic and professional notables from around the city and state turned out on a frigid Monday morning for the 2019 Annual Martin Luther King Interfaith Prayer Breakfast, held in the Family Life Center of Saint Mark Baptist Church. Guests socialized before partaking of a buffet that included eggs, bacon, sausage, fruit, biscuits, croissants and muffins.

Tiffany Pettus served as master of ceremonies for the breakfast, during which Du-Shun Scarbrough, executive director for the commission, presented the 2019 Drum Major for Justice Award to the Arkansas Legislative Black Caucus. State Sen. Linda Chesterfield gave acceptance remarks. Gov. Asa Hutchinson offered King Holiday reflections and Priest Uttam Sloka Das Ji of Shri Radha Madhav Welspun Temple gave a commemorative litany.

State Rep. Jamie Scott, breakfast speaker, was introduced by commission chairman Sharon Ingram. Scott reminded the audience that King's work needs to be continued as justice can still be unequal and inconsistent. Fifty-six years after King's "I Have a Dream" speech, she said, "we are still grappling with the very meaning of the same shameful traditions that King dreamed that we would and could remedy. ... We need to continue to pledge to [work to fulfill] the dream that King spoke of. We must pledge that we shall always march ahead, that we cannot and will not turn back."

Gospel recording artist Melvin Williams of The Williams Brothers got audience members to their feet during a rousing, program-ending commemorative performance that included a rendition of "Abraham, Martin and John."'

High Profile on 01/27/2019

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