Issues like the wealth gap, poverty, the lack of affordable housing and homelessness were issues of the day when King penned his famous “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” on April 16, 1963, and Wicker said they are big issues still today.
The luncheon is scheduled for 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday at the Harry T. Wilks Conference Center at Miami University Regionals Hamilton campus, 1600 University Boulevard. Tickets are $10 a person and $80 a table, but there’s a limit of 100 tickets. The event is sponsored by Hamilton Community Foundation, 17Strong, Miami University Regional’s Center for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and the YWCA Hamilton.
Tammy Kernodle, distinguished professor in the Music Department at Miami University in Oxford, will lead the musical selections for the event.
Archie Johnson, an organizer of the event, said they limited it to 100 people to help keep the cost of the meal affordable.
“We try to do a lot of things for a lot of people, but this time we’re narrowing down the focus,” Johnson said.
Wicker said his hope, after his speech, is that people will be intentional about doing what’s right “because there’s a divine law attached to that. God says that ‘If you know to do right, and you do it not, it is sin.’ My emphasis on that day is to be, it is always right to do what’s right. Now is the time to do right.”
On Monday, Hamilton’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day march will be held, celebrating and remembering the civil rights champion’s fight through non-violence.
Monday’s march steps off at 11 a.m. at the Booker T. Washington Center, traveling down South Front and east on High Street and south on MLK Jr. Boulevard before it heads to the Christ Temple COGIC for a service designed to unite the community through King’s message. The speaker is the Rev. Eric Carson of Columbus.
King, a Baptist minister, was instrumental in the civil rights movement as a pivotal voice in working to end entrenched segregation for African Americans and to the Civil Rights Act of 1964. King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn.
HOW TO GO
What: The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Re-Engagement Luncheon
When: 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday
Where: Harry T. Wilks Conference Center at Miami University Regionals Hamilton campus, 1600 University Boulevard.
Info: Tickets are $10 per person or $80 for a table of eight and can be purchased online at bit.ly/MLKReEngagement. Tickets are limited to 100.
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