Bentley to join Unity event
Published 8:54 pm Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Gov. Robert Bentley will speak at the 2011 Bridge Crossing Jubilee’s Martin Luther King and Coretta S. King Unity Breakfast, scheduled for Sunday.
The event, which will be held at Wallace Community College at 7:30 a.m., will also be attended by U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, (D-S.C.).
In its fifth year, the annual breakfast, which has seen such speakers as then U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and former President Bill Clinton, is designed to promote unity across socioeconomic and racial lines.
Wallace Community College president James Mitchell said he is excited about the event and Bentley’s presence is appropriate.
“He is our newly-elected governor,” Mitchell said. “We often times don’t agree with speakers but we have to come together and have conversation. Bentley said he’s a governor for ‘all people’ and this is an opportunity to see that.”
Following the breakfast, Bentley will speak at Tabernacle Baptist Church, Mitchell said at 11 a.m. and Clyburn will speak at Brown Chapel A.M.E. Church.
Mitchell said the Jubilee has given him a chance to meet many of the voting rights movement’s foot soldiers.
“The foot soldiers are right here among us,” Mitchell said. “And, we can’t lose sight of the sacrifices they made for us.”