MLK Commission of Florida Inc. to celebrate its 40 year of honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

As the 37th anniversary nears of the first time Martin Luther King Jr. Day was observed nationally, the MLK Commission of Florida in Gainesville is gearing up to celebrate its 40th year of honoring and commemorating the legacy of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The highlight of King Celebration 2024 in Gainesville will be the 39^th annual Hall of Fame Gala at 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the Hilton University of Florida Conference Center Gainesville, 1714 SW 34^th St.

The theme of King Celebration 2024 will be “King Commission: 40 Years of Legacy.”

King Celebration 2024 will feature new twists that include the gala being held at the Hilton for the first time, said Rodney Long, founder and president of the King Commission.

“We want to bring more of a gala feeling to it,” said Long, who will be recognized as the newest member of the commission’s hall of fame during the gala.

King Celebration 2024 also will feature a walk down memory lane event, and floats, bands and others will be a part of the annual King Celebration commemorative march for the first time to make it more of a parade, Long said.

The march/parade will begin at noon Jan. 15 at the Bo Diddley Downtown Community Plaza, 111 E. University Ave., and end at Citizen’s Field on Waldo Road. Those attending are encouraged to park early at Citizens Field and take advantage of the free shuttle bus service that will once again be provided by the city of Gainesville, Long said.

“We want people to use the free shuttle bus service so they can just leave from Citizens Field and go home after the parade festivities,” Long said.

Parade festivities on Jan. 15, the national MLK Holiday, will end with the National Holiday Celebration beginning at 1 p.m. at Citizens Field with a feature performance by Little Jake and The Soul Searchers Band, the spoken word and more.

Long will join King, who was the first inductee into the hall of fame named in his honor, and other notable local leaders and community activists such as the late Rev. Dr. Thomas A. Wright Sr., who pastored historic Mount Carmel Baptist Church for more than 40 years and who also served as president of the Alachua County NAACP during separate stints for almost 20 years; the late Charles Chestnut III, who recently died after owning and operating Chestnut Funeral Home that was established in 1914 in Gainesville; Rosa B. Williams, co-founder and chair of the Black on Black Crime Task Force; and dozens of others who are featured in a photo display in the King Memorial Gardens in front of City Hall at 200 E. University Ave. in downtown Gainesville.

“I have had people jokingly say to me that it has taken 40 years for the King Commission to recognize what I’ve done as a community servant,” Long said. “But when you are a servant of the community, you don’t do what you do for the recognition. However, I am honored and humbled to be inducted into the hall of fame. When you are a public servant, you do what you do to serve others.”

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Long said he began his civic involvement in 1978 as co-owner of Music Express of Gainesville and W.O.N.E. radio station. He would go on to organize community events such as the Musical Affair Homecoming event that used to take place following the annual University of Florida Homecoming Parade and the All-American Sport-A-Thon for youth in the community.

He also organized the first King Commemorative March while attending UF in 1982. It began at the Plaza of Americas on UF’s campus and ended at the downtown community plaza.

The King Memorial Celebration Committee, which grew into the King Commission, was established after a request to the Gainesville City Commission by Long in December of 1984 with the goal to build a memorial to honor King and to coordinate events with local groups and organizations to celebrate King’s legacy, Long said.

Long has also served as executive director of the Alachua County NAACP from 1983-87, became the first elected single-member district commissioner on the Gainesville City Commission in 1988, and in 2000 became the first Black person to serve on both the Gainesville City Commission and Alachua County Commission after being elected to the county commission.

The common thread shared between all of those inducted into the King Commission’s Hall of Fame is that all of them have given unselfishly of themselves to better the community without any need to be recognized, Long said.

The keynote speaker at this year’s hall of fame gala will be Justice Alexander, a senior at Eastside High School who is this year’s Edna M. Hart Keeper of the Dream Scholarship recipient, Long said.

“What is ironic is that she won a spelling bee we had as part of King Celebration activities when she was younger and said then that one of her goals was to win the Keeper of the Dream Scholarship, and she has seen her dream become reality,” Long said.

Her speech will shed light on her journey through her young life and give honor to King’s legacy, Alexander said.

“I want to give them a glimpse of my story and the circumstances I overcame,” she said. “I want to acknowledge the opportunities Dr. King and other civil rights leaders worked so hard to provide for us.”

The scholarship has awarded close to $500,000 since its inception in 1982, when Carla Davis received $500 as recipient of the scholarship. It is named in honor of the late Hart, who was a longtime teacher and reading specialist in several schools in Alachua County for more than 40 years, Long said. He noted that last year’s recipient, Makayla Flanders, an Eastside graduate, was awarded $10,000.

“All of our scholarship recipients have been excellent students who love serving others and giving back to the community,” Long said.

King Celebration events will also include:

+ Tuesday at 6:30 p.m., Remembering Martin and Coretta Program at DaySpring Baptist Church at 1945 NE Eighth Ave.

+ Jan. 10 at 7 p.m., town hall symposium billed as “King Commission: 40 Years of Legacy Panel Discussion” featuring former hall of fame and scholarship recipients at DaySpring.

+ Jan. 12 at 6 p.m., third annual Stephan P. Mickle Jazz Concert in honor of the late U.S. District Court Judge Stephan P. Mickle at the Bo Diddley Downtown Community Plaza at 111 E. University Ave.

+ Jan. 13 at 7 p.m., Star Center Theatre and King Commission present “Walk Don’t Ride: A Celebration of the Fight for Freedom and Equality” at the theater at 11 NE 23^rd Ave. Free tickets available through: https://starcenter.ticketleap.com or by calling 352-376-2442.

For more information about these and other events to be held during King Celebration 2024, visit www.martinlutherkingcommission.org.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: Gainesville to once again celebrate MLK National Holiday with events