Historical December 1993 article. Dates, prices, services and contacts describe the source period; current availability has not been established.
The Skinker DeBaliviere Community Council helped to sponsor the first King Commemoration on January 8, 1988.
The tradition will continue this year and the Commemoration Committee is again chaired by Jack Wright, a longtime resident of Skinker DeBaliviere and past president of the Council.
This year he is assisted by Ruth Johnson, Ted Smith, Rev. Miki Merritt, Lana Stein, and SDCC Executive Director Kim Koenig.
The Commemoration will once again be held at Grace and Peace Church, Delmar at Clara. Grace and Peace is a continuing co-sponsor of this event.
The commemoration will be on January 16 from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. Jack Wright will serve as emcee.
The Rev. Egon Middleton of Grace and Peace will give the welcome. Gregory Freeman, Post Dispatch columnist and neighborhood resident, will deliver the keynote address on the topic of “The Need for Nonviolence, Now More Than Ever.” his theme will also be addressed in readings and musical selections performed by area schools. New City, Hamilton, St. Roch, and Crossroads are being invited to participate, as they did last year. Music also will be provided by the New Cote Brilliante Church of God choir and soloists from Grace and Peace. Rev. Merritt of New Cote Brilliante will deliver closing remarks.
All residents of Skinker DeBaliviere and those interested in honoring Dr. King’s civil rights legacy are welcome to attend.
For the younger generation, Dr. King’s life and works may only have slight relevance.
It may be time to discover or re-discover the words and deeds of the man who led the destruction of de jure segregation in the south and awakened to the north to its own hypocritical practices. Winner of the Nobel peace prize, King used the nonviolent methods of Gandhi to alert the nation to its peculiar dilemma and to finally cause the collective conscience to take action to eliminate it. Of course, the struggle did not end in the 1960s; inequalities, especially economic, persist. But, King offered strategies to keep fighting for greater justice.
This annual Commemoration helps participants and audience alike remember and then look forward to a better world.
Original photograph caption
Commemoration Chair, Jack Wright. Photo by King Schoenfeld.
Originally published in The Times of Skinker-DeBaliviere, December 1993.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1993_12.pdf, printed page(s) 1; PDF page(s) 1.
