December 16, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
King Day Celebration Events Announced
DECATUR - A renowned civil rights leader who helped begin the modern day civil rights movement through his leadership in the Montgomery bus boycott will be the speaker at this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday banquet.
Rev. Joseph Lowery has been called “the dean of the civil rights movement” and was instrumental, along with Dr. King, in organizing and leading the bus boycott after Rosa Parks was arrested for failing to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. Rev. Lowery also helped found the Southern Christian Leadership Conference along with Dr. King and subsequently served as president of the organization for 20 years. He played a major role in pivotal civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 60s and remains active in the movement today.
The banquet will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday, January 17 at the Decatur Conference Center and Hotel. Tickets are $30 (or $300 for a table of 10) and may be purchased at:
City of Decatur’s Human Resources Department
Decatur Civic Center, Second Floor
1 Gary K. Anderson Plaza
Decatur YMCA
220 W. McKinley St.
Decatur, IL
We will be required to end ticket sales no later than 5:00 p.m. Friday January 9th in order to provide a meal count to the Decatur Conference Center. Tickets will not be sold at the door.
As president of the SCLC from 1977 to 1997, Rev. Lowery was an active protestor of the apartheid policies in South Africa and co-chaired the 1990 Nelson Mandela visit to Atlanta following Mandela’s release from prison. Rev. Lowery also led a peace delegation to the Middle East and met with the president of Lebanon and Yasser Arafat to seek justice through non-violent means. He was co founder of the Black Leadership Forum, a consortium of national Black advocacy organizations, and served as the organization’s third president following Vernon Jordan and Benjamin Hooks.
Other Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday events include:
Annual March, beginning at 11:30 a.m. Monday, January 19th — Anyone wanting to participate can show up at either Mueller Park in the south or Hess Park / Harris School in the north at 11:30 a.m. The march will begin at noon and proceed from both directions to MLK Drive and North St. where the two groups will converge and join as one, marching on to St. Patrick Catholic Church at Jackson and Eldorado Sts. An after-march program will take place there for approximately one hour.
Major financial sponsors of the King day holiday events include Archer Daniels Midland and Coming Together (gold sponsors at $5,000), Ameren Illinois Utilities, Caterpillar and St. Mary’s Hospital (Silver Sponsors at $2,500), Decatur Memorial Hospital, Tate & Lyle, Hickory Point Bank, Earthmover Credit Union and Soy Capital Bank and Trust (Bronze Sponsors at $1,000).
The Decatur Human Relations Commission has organized and produced King Day holiday celebration events for the past 23 years. We are very pleased to offer the community yet another year of celebration of this great man and his achievements in bringing diverse groups of people together and celebrating not only that diversity, but also our similarities and common goals.
For more information contact Human Relations Specialist Mark Barthelemy at 424-2805.