Athens has a morning of events planned for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday on Jan. 16.
The first event is the annual
Athens-Limestone Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday
March, which will start at 9 a.m. on the south
side of the Limestone County Courthouse.
Marchers will walk to the Alabama Veterans
Museum and Archives on Pryor Street for a 9:30
a.m. program.
The program includes musical performances and
the recognition of local students who won the
Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Essay Contest.
There were two essay themes this year, “2012
Embrace the Dream” and “What Happened to the
Dream?” Refreshments will be served.
The Athens City Council and mayor’s office,
Limestone County Commission and Limestone County
NAACP sponsor these first two events.
Another tradition in Athens is the Lincoln-Bridgeforth
Park Committee’s Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday
Celebration. This is the event’s 15th year. It
will occur at 11 a.m. at Sweet Home Missionary
Baptist Church on Westmoreland Street.
Council
President and committee member Jimmy Gill said
this year’s guest speaker will be Bishop Teresa
Snorton of Birmingham, who became the 59th
bishop and first female bishop of the Christian
Methodist Episcopal Church on June 30, 2010.
Snorton’s family heritage includes a
great-grandfather, father and uncle who were all
CME pastors, and two sisters who are currently
pastors. Snorton is an adjunct instructor in
pastoral care at Candler School of Theology at
Emory University.
The program will include music and the naming of
the committee’s Dr. C. Eric Lincoln Humanitarian
Award recipient. The committee gives the award
in memory of Lincoln, who was born in 1924 in
Athens and was the 1939 valedictorian of the
former all-black Trinity High School. Lincoln
was an author, theologian, ordained Methodist
minister and a professor of religion at Duke
University. His book "The Avenue, Clayton City"
won the Lillian Smith Award for best Southern
fiction in 1988.
Gill said lunch will be provided following the
program.
Holly Hollman
Grant Coordinator/Communications Specialist
City of Athens
256-262-1399
See Photos of last year's MLK
Day!
