Calls for unity ring out at annual MLK Community Center breakfast

Jan. 18—It does not take one of us, but all of us.

"In order to move from Black history to Black future," said keynote speaker Michael T. Bowers at the Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast on Monday, "we all have to work together."

Law enforcement officials, elected leaders and community members heard this call for unity at an event to honor Martin Luther King Jr. and his legacy at the southeast Bakersfield community center that bears his name. Through this unity, change will come, the speakers said.

Bowers, a member of the city of Bakersfield's Planning Commission and the director of public relations and business development for Centric Healthcare, asked city leaders to invest in the Black community by providing economic opportunities. He questioned if Bakersfield's slogan, "The Sound of Something Better," includes the area surrounding east Bakersfield. He also thanked local leaders for always taking their calls when something needs to be addressed.

He implored members of the audience to cast off their political ideologies and judge people by their character, as King asked of everyone in his iconic "I Have a Dream" speech.

To ensure the equality of Black Americans, more Black people must own businesses and take care of their mental health, Bowers said. The area surrounding the center, he added, has seen a decline of Black-owned businesses that needs to be replenished.

The breakfast also included awards for influential leaders and contributors in the community. The recipients included: Michael Trihey, news director at KGET; Jesse Beed, the principal and coordinator at Rafer Johnson Community Day School; Lilli Parker, the executive director of the Bakersfield Senior Center; Deacon Isaiah Crompton, the executive director of Isaiah's Sober Living; and Arleana Waller, the founder and president of the ShePower Leadership Academy and the MLKCommUNITY Initiative. She serves on the Cal State Bakersfield African-American Council, which advises CSUB President Lynnette Zelezny. In addition, she serves on the executive board of Kern County's B3K Prosperity economic development collaboration, a coalition of community leaders strategizing ways to create good jobs.

Waller felt pure "emotion" after receiving the call for her award. She took the opportunity to stress the importance of unity and her goals of police reform, education and closing the economic gap, during her acceptance speech.

"We all hurt, if we continue to leave Black families and black children at the bottom," Waller, the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award, said to The Californian. "It is an economic problem that our leaders must be more intentional about changing."

Editor's Note: The story has been updated to include the correct titles of Arleana Waller.

You can reach Ishani Desai at 661-395-7417. You can also follow her at @idesai98 on Twitter.