Honor Martin Luther King Day at these 15 Kansas City celebrations and service events
- Oops!Something went wrong.Please try again later.
The year 2024 marks the 38th national observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
But it’s been celebrated in Kansas City long before it became a national holiday.
For over 50 years, Kansas City ministers and community leaders have gathered the city together to celebrate the life of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and to honor his legacy of racial justice, economic equity and service.
The tradition continues with the Southern Christian Leadership Council of Greater Kansas City’s annual MLK Mass Celebration and Forum on Monday at Metropolitan Missionary Baptist Church, 2310 E. Linwood Blvd. Other events honoring the life and legacy of MLK Jr. are also happening during the holiday weekend.
The SCLC event will be centered around the continued push for reparations for Black Kansas Citians. Kansas City approved the Mayor’s Commission on Reparations in 2023 after last year’s SCLC event, and Vernon Percy Howard Jr., the president of the local SCLC and the lead organizer of the MLK Day events, said in a statement that the commission’s funding request of $500,000 must be fulfilled.
“The Commission’s funding request must be fulfilled, and fulfilled now, so that the Commission can do the research and the work necessary for presenting a plan of successful repair of Black Kansas City owed to Blacks due to the centuries of chattel enslavement, bank and real estate redlining, housing discrimination, mass incarceration, and economic isolation and disinvestment our people have suffered,” Howard said in a statement.
Reparations initiatives are intended to help close wealth gaps and other disparities created by decades of anti-Black racism in U.S. government policies at every level of government, including redlining, Jim Crow laws and, before that, the enslavement of Black people.
The forum starts at 4 p.m. on Jan. 15. It is followed by a mass celebration at 6 p.m. featuring keynote speaker Ajamu Webster, an activist, entrepreneur, educator, griot, and founding organizer of the National Black United Front’s Kansas City chapter. Webster is returning home from Ghana, West Africa, where he currently resides.
Taking place on the third Monday in January, Martin Luther King Jr. Day is the only federal holiday that is also designated by Congress as a national day of service, according to the U.S. Department of the Interior. Jeff Shafer, the senior vice president and executive director of education nonprofit City Year, said it’s a “day on, not a day off.”
In addition to those using the day for celebration and advocacy, organizations around Kansas City are hosting volunteering events for Kansas Citians to participate in King’s legacy of service to others.
Where else can you honor MLK Day in Kansas City? Check out one of these 15 volunteer opportunities or events happening in town.
City Year Kansas City Day of Service
City Year’s Kansas City organization, along with AmeriCorps and Kansas City Public Schools, are bringing 150 volunteers on Monday to Pitcher Elementary School, 9915 E. 38 Terrace. Volunteers will paint and decorate the hallways of the middle school with inspirational and positive messages to inspire students.
You can register for your spot online, although there is a waitlist. Anyone over the age of 11 can volunteer and you can help out for as long as you’d like while you are on site.
Garmin MLK Day of Service
Garmin is partnering with the United Way of Greater Kansas City to host a weekend of service, running Jan. 12-15. Garmin and United Way are providing volunteer opportunities around the Kansas City metro to honor and celebrate King’s teachings of equality, justice and service.
Together, they are asking for volunteers for four local organizations who need help with sorting food, clean-up, IT needs and much more. The four organizations are:
The Single Mom KC: 9-11 a.m. Friday at 11539 W. 83rd Terrace in Overland Park.
Avenue of Life: 1-3 p.m. Friday at 500 N. Seventh St. in Kansas City, Kansas.
Serve The World: 6:45-9 a.m. Friday at Evangel Church at 1414 E. 103rd St.
Our Sport KC: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday at 2801 E. 80th St.
You can sign up to volunteer for any of these organizations online.
Harvesters MLK Day of Service
Harvesters’ facility at 3801 Topping Ave. is hosting an event to teach kids and adults about King and the value of giving back to the community on Monday.
In addition to learning, volunteers will be:
Sorting and boxing nonperishable food
Packing fresh produce
Sorting and boxing bread
Repacking ready-to-eat food and bulk products, which may include refrigerated or meat products
Packing BackSnacks, which are backpacks filled with nutritious, child-friendly food for children in elementary and middle schools.
The volunteer slots are all filled for now, but you can add your name to the waitlist online. Kids need to be at least 8 years old to volunteer and must be accompanied by a parent or guardian.
Kansas City Public Library hygiene product drive
The Kansas City Public Library is encouraging the community to donate items for personal care kits to hand out to those in need as a part of their fifth annual hygiene product drive. People can donate travel-sized hygiene products to any KCPL location from now until Jan. 11.
The products will be put together in a kit on Jan. 16, along with a copy of the KCPL’s Street Sheet. The library is taking the following items for donation:
Adhesive bandages
Body wash and soap
Combs and hairbrushes
Deodorant
Shampoo
Hand sanitizer
Lip balm
Toothbrushes and toothpaste
Nail clippers
Razors
Washcloths
Find your closest KCPL location using the online map.
MLK Service Day with AARP Kansas City
Join the AARP from 9 a.m. to noon on Monday at the Cleaver Family YMCA, 7000 Troost Ave. for a day of service. You will be making sleeping and health care kits for the unhoused, along with fleece blankets for KC Pet Project and notes of encouragement for local schools and organizations.
Register for the event on AARP’s website.
We Are One - AKA MLK Day of Service
The Greater Kansas City area’s Alpha Kappa Alpha chapter are hosting a few events on Monday for their day of service.
Their events start at 9 a.m. with a solidarity walk at the Black Archives Of Mid-America located at 1722 E 17th Terrace. This is followed by a food and coat collection from 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., where they will collect non-perishable foods in the American Jazz Museum Atrium and winter coats in the Black Archives’ parking lot.
The AKA chapter is also hosting a financial literacy seminar from noon to 2 p.m.. They will provide lunch to all who sign up for the seminar, which you can do online.
Metropolitan Community College’s MLK Jr. Scholarship Luncheon
The 2024 Chancellor’s Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Luncheon hosted by Metropolitan Community College takes places at 11 a.m. Friday at the Loews Hotel in downtown Kansas City. The event raises funds for student scholarships
Martin Luther King III, the son of the late civil rights icon, is the special guest at the event and will be a part of an onstage conversation with Lisa Ginter, CEO of CommunityAmerica Credit Union.
The discussion will be centered around King’s continuation of his family’s legacy and work for equality; the current state of the American civil rights movement; and how Kansas City business and civic leaders can “Be Part of the Dream,” according to MCC event organizers.
The event is sold out, and attendees will receive a copy of King III’s children’s picture book, “My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.”
MLK — The Dream Continues
The Westport Coffeehouse Theater is celebrating King through readings and music from 6-8 p.m. on Sunday. Special guest speakers include Rev. Robert Johnson and Rev. Karen Nyhart, and there will be live performances from the Trinity Jazz Ensemble.
Tickets cost $10 for adults and $5 for students at the door.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day Nature Walk
The Heartland Conservation Alliance and KC Parks are taking people on a 2.5-mile-long guided walk along Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. & Woodland Avenue. The walk starts at 9 a.m. on Monday at Martin Luther King Jr. Square Park, and ends at Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center, located at 3700 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
The 2.5 mile guided walk is put together by the Heartland Conservation Alliance and KC Parks. Walk along Brush Creek as you reflect on the work of King. A program occurs including local community leaders providing their insight on environmental justice at the heritage center after the walk is completed.
The walk is free, but you have to reserve your tickets online. You can bring your pets on the walk, but not inside the Bruce R. Watkins Cultural Heritage Center. The event takes place rain or shine.
MLK Day: Coffee with Champions
The Negro Leagues Baseball Museum is hosting a panel remembering the life works of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and explore the connection between baseball and civil rights at 8:30 a.m. Monday. The panel is moderated by Pastor Ronald Lindsay and features Kansas City Mayor Pro Tem Ryana Parks-Shaw, Congressman Emanuel Cleaver II and NLBM president Bob Kendrick.
The event is free for all to attend, but you must register online.
The City of Lee’s Summit’s MLK Celebration
The city of Lee’s Summit’s Human Relations Commission will celebrate King at 5:30 p.m. Monday at The Pavilion at John Knox Village, 520 N.W. Murray Road.
Visitors can see free exhibits by organizations such as Suburban Balance, a Lee’s Summit-based non-profit that helps provide educational and cultural opportunities to suburban kids of color. This year’s theme “Living the Dream, It Starts with Me Spreading Hope, Courage and Unity.”
Attendees can expect creative performances and a speech by Rebecca J. Wates, an associate director in the BioPharma division of KCAS Bio. The first 250 people to arrive will receive a free T-shirt.
“This celebration isn’t just a pause, but a springboard asking everyone to commit to carrying his message, not just today, but in every step we take towards a united community,” Vanessa Hickman, chairwoman of the Human Relations Commission, said in a statement.
