Unity Breakfast to welcome key speakers
Published 12:34 am Saturday, February 25, 2012
Wallace Community College-Selma president Dr. James Mitchell, left, and State Sen. Hank Sanders, announced plans for the annual Jubilee Unity Breakfast, planned for Sunday, March 4 at 7:15 a.m. The event will be held at Wallace Community College. -- Robert Hudson
The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his followers promoted nonviolence as well as unity among the races. Organizers for the annual Bridge Crossing Jubilee want to continue to promote King’s ideals during the sixth annual Martin Luther King and Coretta S. King Unity Breakfast, scheduled for Sunday, March 4 at 7: 15 a.m. inside the Wallace Community College-Selma gym.
At a press conference held Friday, State Sen. Hank Sanders said for the first time, multiple nationally recognized speakers will headline the event.
“This time we’re doing it differently,” Sanders said. “This time there are four different speakers. We have very powerful speakers … people speaking across all lines — white lines, black lines (and) Hispanic lines.”
Guest speakers include the Rev. Al Sharpton, Arlene Holt Baker, Vice president of national labor union AFL-CIO, Dr. Adelaide Sanford, vice chancellor emerita of the New York Board of Regents, and Janet Murguia, president of the National Council of La Raza, the largest Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the U.S.
Sanders calls the moment like no other.
“To have all four … coming to Selma in one program, is an extraordinary moment,” Sanders said. “This event is timely — we have the right speakers, right events.”
Wallace president Dr. James Mitchell said the event is an opportunity to “encourage and promote Jubilee and all it signifies.”
“It’s a cause for to pause and reflect on individuals that paid the ultimate price for us to have the freedoms we have today,” Mitchell said. “Chances are, none of us would be where we are if none of the things happened in 1965 … that caused a national, international movement.”
Mitchell said the college is proud to once again host the breakfast, and he said it’s imperative that the public comes together on every level.
“This is a critical time for us to address the issues of workers’ rights and immigration and bring it to the forefront,” Mitchell said. “We need to come together in masses (and) let it be known this ain’t right and we won’t tolerate it.”
