Rochester's annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast event will be held virtually this year due to COVID-19.
The Rochester Chamber of Commerce, the Diversity Council and the NAACP will sponsor the event once again, and it will be streamed live on the NAACP’s Facebook page at 10 a.m. Jan. 18.
Those speaking at the event will include an interview with former Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page, the court's first Black justice.
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Two local high school students will conduct the interview and local artists will give virtual performances as well. The event’s annual poetry competition for students will also take place and the winners will present their poems during the event.
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The march that normally takes place after the breakfast will also be held virtually and will be “more of a visual montage of important sites of the African-American struggle,” NAACP Secretary Barbara Jordan said. The annual People’s Program will virtually take place after the march.
Jordan, who is also the wife of former NAACP President William Jordan, said this year’s event will be “extremely” important for the community in coming together to support what King stood for.
“I think people will want an opportunity, whether it’s just to turn on their computer or participate in some way in our program, to be a part of it,” Jordan said. “And show their support to our community saying no to the things Dr. King said no to, which was hate and violence and showing peaceful approaches to unity in the country.”
When: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 18.
How: Click here for streaming information: http://bit.ly/MLKRochMN2021
What:
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Morning Program Highlights
Welcome: Lizzy Haywood | People's Food Co-op | Chair, Rochester Area | Chamber Board of Directors
- Reflections: Dee Sabol, Executive Director, Diversity Council
- "Lift Every Voice & Sing:" Angie Porter
- Keynote Interview: Alan Page, Former
- Chief Justice of Minnesota Supreme Court and Kesarin & Yasmin Ali, Rochester
- Community Initiative
- Song: Bri Thompson
- Poetry Contest: Diversity Council
- Call to Action: Wale Elegede, President of Rochester NAACP
- Closing Remarks: Lizzy Haywood | People's Food Co-op | Chair, Rochester Area
- Chamber Board of Directors
Afternoon Program Highlights
- Virtual “March to Freedom” through African Amercian Historical Sites
- Welcome/Invocation
- "Lift Every Voice & Sing" Kirk Franklin Version
- Youth reciting a passage of Dr. King’s words
- Song/Entertaiment: Tamara Harris
- Keynote: Dr. King & Me: A panel of local leaders
- President’s Speech: Wale Elegede, President of Rochester NAACP
- Membership Appeal and Closing: Kindra Ramaker
- Adjourn
