MLK celebrations fill weekend across Grand Strand
Eighty-seven years ago, at noon this Friday, Martin Luther King Jr. was born.
As remembered by The King Center in his hometown Atlanta (www.thekingcenter.org), when awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, at age 35, King said at his acceptance speech that “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.”
A History.com compilation of special tidbits on the background of the late civil rights pioneer and his immersion in education, includes:
▪ His birth name was Michael, but his father, a Baptist preacher, inspired after visiting Germany and learning of Martin Luther’s Protestant reformation efforts, changed his and his son’s names in 1934.
▪ In 1944, King enrolled at age 15 at Morehouse College in Atlanta, where he earned a degree in sociology in the same school from where his father and maternal grandfather graduated.
▪ After earning a divinity degree from Crozer Theological Seminary in Chester, Pa., King, already an ordained minister, studied at Boston University, where he received his doctorate in systematic theology in 1955, with his dissertation, “A Comparison of the Conceptions of God in the Thinking of Paul Tillich and Henry Nelson Wieman.”
Commemorations of King’s life will fill every day this weekend across the Grand Strand, starting with a celebration at 7 p.m. Thursday in Coastal Carolina University’s Wheelwright Auditorium.
Contact STEVE PALISIN at 843-444-1764.
If you go
Grand Strand celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. – ‘Building Stronger Communities’
BY: Carolina African American Heritage Foundation, based in Myrtle Beach
WHERE: At various sites near downtown Myrtle Beach
WHAT, WHEN AND WHERE:
▪ “Brown Bag” working luncheon at Myrtle Beach’s Mary C. Canty (formerly Canal Street) Recreation Center, 971 Canal St. – Saturday – “Business & Opportunity” 9-11 a.m., “Employability Workshop and Job Fair” 11 a.m.-1 p.m., and “Statewide Deliberative Dialogue Forum” 1 p.m.
▪ “Gospel Explosion” tributes concert, 5 p.m. Saturday at Sandy Grove Missionary Baptist Church, 1009 Carver St.
▪ “Civil Rights Sunday” ecumenical service, 5 p.m. Sunday at Sandy Grove Church.
▪ Corporate and Community Awards Breakfast, 8 a.m. Monday in Canty Recreation Center.
▪ Freedom Parade, 11:45 a.m. Monday southward on Ocean Boulevard from 24th Avenue North to Ninth Avenue North, with gathering afterward at Plyler Park, at Mr. Joe White Avenue, and Coast RTA bus rides available afterward for return to starting point.
INFORMATION:
▪ Bennie Swans at 843-903-4939 or 843-251-2061, or email swansbennie1@aol.com.
▪ www.caahf.org or carolinaafricanheritagefoundation.org
Other King holiday events
▪ Celebration, 7 p.m. Thursday in Coastal Carolina University’s Wheelwright Auditorium, off U.S. 501 in Conway. Free, with ticket. 843-349-2787 or www.coastal.edu/culturalarts.
▪ Annual parade in Georgetown, 11 a.m. Saturday, with lineup at 10 a.m. at Beck Recreational Center field on Church Street, then heading south on Merriman Road to Howard Adult Educational Center campus at Butts Street entrance, for community fellowship until 4 p.m. Parade entry fee $25, benefiting The Mitney Project, which serves needy youth and their families with special, positive programs. 843-546-7900 or themitneyproject.org.
▪ Annual free day at aquarium, 9 a.m.-5 p.m. (daily business hours) Monday, at N.C. Aquarium at Fort Fisher, on U.S. 421, just south of Kure Beach. (Regular admission: $10.95 ages 13-61, $9.95 seniors and military, $8.95 ages 3-12, and free ages 2 and younger.) 910-458-7468 or www.ncaquariums.com/fort-fisher.
▪ Celebration, 11 a.m. Monday at Chesterfield Missionary Baptist Church, 8591 S.C. 90, Longs, with Elder Dr. Allen Parrot as guest speaker, music by Community Male Chorus, and lunch. 843-399-6421.
▪ Timeline exhibit of King’s life, Tuesday-Jan. 23 at Horry County Memorial Library Little River branch, 107 S.C. 57 N., in back of Ralph Ellis County Building, during regular hours – 9 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesdays-Fridays, and 9 a.m.-2 p.m Saturdays. 843-399-5541 or www.hcml.org.
▪ “The Civil Rights Era Exhibit,” with themes from PBS documentary “Eyes on the Prize: America's Civil Rights Years, 1954-1965,” through February in Francis Marion University Rogers Library; and special screening of select episodes of “Eyes on the Prize,” 4 and 6:30 p.m. Jan. 21, for free, in Cauthen Educational Media Center's Lowrimore Auditorium. Find the university, 4822 E. Palmetto St. (U.S. 76/301), Florence. 843-661-1220 or www.fmarion.edu.
This story was originally published January 12, 2016 at 12:00 PM with the headline "MLK celebrations fill weekend across Grand Strand."