Unity marches in Springfield, Jacksonville highlight MLK Day

Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in the Springfield area feature the annual Springfield Frontiers International Memorial Breakfast, unity marches in the capital city and Jacksonville and a "vision board" celebration at CAP 1908.

Westminster Presbyterian Church hosts an MLK community gathering Saturday.

Blackburn College's annual MLK Convocation returns to the Carlinville campus Tuesday.

More:Two Springfield emergency medical technicians face first-degree murder charges

Monday is a federal holiday meaning government buildings and schools are closed. There is no delivery by the U.S. Postal Service.

MLK Memorial Breakfast

Gerald A. McWorter, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will give the keynote address at the Memorial Breakfast at the City Center Wyndham, 700 E. Adams St., at 8:30 a.m. Monday.

McWorter is the great-great-grandson of Free Frank McWorter, a freed slave who founded the town of New Philadelphia, Illinois, in Pike County in 1836. The integrated town thrived, but its demise was cast when the railroad skirted the town.

There is an interpretive site in New Philadelphia which late in 2022 was recognized as a National Historic Site.

McWorter and his wife, Kate Williams-McWorter, co-authored the book "New Philadelphia" (Path Press, Inc.)

Tickets are $30 and available from any Springfield Frontiers member.

Unity marches

The Springfield NAACP unity march steps off from Pilgrim Rest Missionary Baptist Church, 1800 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, at noon Monday.

It proceeds down King Drive to Pleasant Grove Baptist Church, 908 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, where a roundtable discussion will be led by high school and college students. It will focus on what King would say about current civil rights issues, said Teresa Haley, president of the Springfield branch of the NAACP and its state director.

Streets intersecting with King Drive--Spruce, Cedar, Pine, South Grand Avenue, Brown, Stuart, Kansas, Clay, Cass and Lawrence Avenue--will be temporarily closed for the march.

University of Illinois Springfield students can get transportation from the campus to Pilgrim Rest and the panel discussion Monday, said Blake Wood, a university spokesman.

The students' annual MLK service project takes place at the UIS Student Union Ballroom from noon to 2:15 p.m. Feb. 4 as part of Black History Month.

The unity march in Jacksonville begins at Mount Emory Baptist Church, 426 S. Church St., at 10 a.m. Monday.

The march heads down Church Street to the King Memorial in Jacksonville Community Park.

There is a program at the church at 4 p.m. featuring pastors and local officials.

Mount Emory is one of the oldest Black churches in Illinois, dating from 1837.

Westminster Presbyterian Church

The MLK community gathering at Westminster Presbyterian, 533 S. Walnut St., features a presentation on "The History of Black Protest in America" by the Rev. Jimmie Hawkins.

Hawkins has been the director of the Presbyterian Church (USA) Office of Public Witness in Washington, D.C. since 2016.

The gathering will feature remarks by U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Springfield, and Teresa Haley, along with an update on the 1908 Race Riot National Monument.

The gathering begins at 10 a.m. Brunch will be served, and the program is free and open to the public.

ALPLM presentation

Brian Mitchell, the ALPLM’s director of research and interpretation, will present “A Long Time Coming: Stories of Social Justice, Resilience, and African American History told through Artifacts" in the library's multi-purpose room at noon Monday.

Mitchell will discuss a prophetic telegram sent by King a month before his assassination; the multiracial town of New Philadelphia, Illinois; a letter sent by Fredrick Douglass to one of the nation’s first Black governors and more.

The program is free and open to the public.

Also Monday, the ALPLM is partnering with the ImpactLife Blood Center to host an on-site visit from the center’s mobile blood unit from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

To schedule a donation appointment, please go to ImpactLife's website and use the search code 61139.

Springfield Project

The 1908 Social Innovation Center, 1100 South Grand Ave. E., will host an "I Have A Dream" vision board celebration from 1 to 4 p.m. Monday.

The center is known as CAP (Community Access Project) 1908 and recently opened in the South Town neighborhood.

Vision board supplies will be available along with health screenings, children's activities and refreshments.

Register at Eventbrite.

Blackburn College Convocation

The Blackburn College Convocation will be held at Bothwell Auditorium at 4 p.m.

The keynote address will be delivered by Leon Chestang, an educator, author and race and culture expert who is a 1959 graduate of Blackburn.

More:U of I professor Gerald McWorter to speak at 48th MLK Memorial Breakfast in Springfield

Chestang authored the first article on transracial adoption in social work literature and set the tone for much of the current effort to find permanent adoptive homes for children. His doctoral dissertation broke new ground in understanding how Blacks achieve in the face of discrimination and racism.

In addition to positions at Wayne State University and Jackson State University, Chestang worked as a child welfare worker and as a child and family counselor.

The convocation is free and open to the public.

What's open, closed Monday

Here’s a list of what’s closed and what’s open on Monday:

Closed

• Federal, state, county and municipal offices, including the administrative offices at Oak Ridge Cemetery and Lincoln Library

• Southern Illinois University School of Medicine

• Midwest Technical Institute (administrative offices open)

• Lincoln Land Community College

• University of Illinois Springfield

• Springfield District 186

• Lincoln Tomb

Open

• Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum

• Lincoln Home & Visitors Center

• Illinois State Museum

• Sangamon Mass Transit District buses run regular schedules

Contact Steven Spearie: 217-622-1788, sspearie@sj-r.com, twitter.com/@StevenSpearie.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Unity marches in Springfield and Jacksonville mark the MLK holiday