Jacksonville split over MLK Breakfast ending with plans for single event

The city of Jacksonville and the NAACP are working together to have a single Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast celebration in January after they parted ways five years years ago and separately put on dueling events that each staked a claim to carry the torch for the annual gathering.

Mayor Donna Deegan said she wanted to to have a single breakfast and reached out to the NAACP and other groups about how to accomplish that.

"I've said from the beginning that I think unity is a big deal in this community, and I'm excited about bringing everyone together for one breakfast," she said. "We're actively now looking at speakers and venues and how we're going to do that, but we will come back together for one breakfast this year."

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The NAACP withdrew from the event put on by the city after its leaders said they didn't have a "real seat at the table" in being able to shape the breakfast when Lenny Curry was mayor. That lead to simultaneous MLK breakfasts from 2019 through 2023 with the city and the NAACP each describing the breakfast the past January as the "36th annual MLK Breakfast."

Isaiah Rumlin, president of the local NAACP branch, also said the breakfasts would be separate until City Hall tackled disparities in spending on public works projects across the city

The keynote speaker at the NAACP breakfast in January 2023 was Aramis Ayala, a civil rights advocate, former state attorney and assistant professor in the University of Central Florida's department of legal studies.

The speaker at the city's event that morning was motivational speaker Simon T. Bailey, an Orange County-based success coach, author, television host and philanthropist.

This keynote speaker for the upcoming Jan. 12 breakfast not been announced.

Deegan said Parvez Ahmed, chief of diversity and inclusion in the mayor's office, has been meeting with representatives of different groups about what they want to see in a single MLK breakfast.

"It just took a little conversation and understanding of what everybody wanted out of that, and the fact that we all want a community that is working for everybody and we wanted to present a unified front," she said.

Deegan also wants to have an MLK Week of Service Program in January for volunteer activities in partnership with United Way of Northeast Florida. She filed legislation with City Council to spend $284,000 so the United Way can expand those activities from a day of service to a week of service from Jan. 13-20 "aimed at uplifting the underserved parts of Jacksonville."

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Jacksonville and NAACP will have one MLK breakfast