Huntsville Center will partner with Team Redstone to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King JR.' s birthday Jan. 21, at 10 a.m., at the Bob Jones Auditorium on Redstone Arsenal. Army Materiel Command is hosting the event.
Sheyann Webb-Christburg, author, social activist and civil rights leader is the guest speaker. Oakwood University’s Voices of Triumph Gospel Ministries will provide musical selections.
There are also essay and display contests. The theme for the MLK Day of Service "Remember! Celebrate! Act: A Day on Not a Day Off," focuses on volunteerism and community service.
Transportation from Huntsville Center to the Bob Jones Auditorium is available for Huntsville Center employees. For more information, contact Angela Morton, Equal Employment Opportunity Office at 256-895-1573.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a United States federal holiday. It is observed on the third Monday of January each year, around the time of King's birthday Jan. 15.
President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law Nov. 2, 1983, making the third Monday in January a legal federal holiday to honor King and his legacy. President Bill Clinton signed the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday and Service Act Aug. 23, 1994, expanding the mission of the holiday as a day of community service, interracial cooperation and youth anti-violence initiatives.
King was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the civil rights movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee.