News Release
Addressing the theme, "Spreading the Commitment for The Dream Worldwide; for Justice, for Brotherhood and for Peace", the Reverend Doctor Damon Lynch, Jr., pastor of Rev. Dr. Damon Lynch, Jr. New Jerusalem Baptist Church of Cincinnati, Ohio, will be the keynote speaker for the 2013 Kansas City, Kan., Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Celebration.
The annual event will be held at 11 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 21, 2013, at the Jack Reardon Civic Center located at 5th and Minnesota Ave.
The Rev. Dr. Damon Lynch, Jr. fought alongside Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth during the Civil Rights movement. Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth survived bombings, beatings and repeated arrests in the fight for civil rights.
During Rev. Shuttleworth's funeral Rev. Lynch said, "He had been baptized by fire in Alabama - dogs and water hoses and beatings. When he came to Cincinnati he was looking for greener pastures. These are my colleagues. We marched together."
"My father was in the civil rights movement. I grew up in a house where Fred Shuttlesworth came over for discussions. As a little boy I'd sit on the steps where no one would see me. They'd be talking in the living room. They'd say, 'We need a Black Santa Claus.' Or, 'We need jobs at Keebler,'" says the Rev. Damon Lynch III of his father.
The King Holiday Mass Celebration and Motorcade/March for Hunger will be held on Martin Luther King holiday, Monday, January 21, 2013. The Motorcade will start assembling at 9:00 a.m. and will depart promptly at 10:00 a.m. from the Mt. Zion Baptist Church located at 5th and Richmond.
The motorcade route will travel through the community and will arrive at the Jack Reardon Civic Center at 5th and Minnesota before the start of the Mass Celebration event, which begins at 11:00 a.m.
The Celebration will include youth highlights and over $30,000 in scholarships will be awarded to graduating high school seniors through the Rev. C.E. Taylor/MLK, Jr. Educational Awards Program. The youth program will feature local youth talent from schools in the Kansas City, Kan., school system.
The annual scholarship award winners will be announced and students will be on hand to receive their educational scholarship awards.
Special accommodations will be made for the physically challenged and the hearing impaired. A sign language interpreter will also be on hand.
There will be a voter registration booth set up with official registrars in attendance to conduct on-the-spot registrations for persons not registered to vote.
This year's celebration is sponsored by:
Sprint
The Greater Kansas City Community Foundation
Happy Food Stores-Happy Foods North
Board of Public Utilities
Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City, Kansas
Construction and General Laborers AFL-CIO #1290
Hilton Garden Inn
Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas,
The Raphael Hotel Group
Mark One Electric Co., Inc.
Landmark Mortgage Co - Americo.
The Community Foundation of Wyandotte County
J.E. Dunn Construction Co. and Dunn Family Foundation
Kansas City Kansas Chamber of Commerce
Evans and Mullinix, P.A.
For additional information, contact: LaVert Murray, General Coordinator at (913) 433-6955 or (913) 334-2355; or Rev. Tony Carter, General Program Chairman at (913) 342-0306 or (913) 515-4354.
