The annual Realizing the Dream celebration at the University of Alabama will feature award-winner gospel duo Mary Mary and actor and community activist Danny Glover.
The celebration will be from Jan. 12-15 and include a concert, banquet, speakers and a unity day. This year’s theme is Realizing the Dream Through Service to Others. The event, which celebrated the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., is hosted by UA, Stillman College, Shelton State Community College and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Glover will be the Legacy Awards Banquet speaker. The banquet will be at 6 p.m. Jan. 12 in the Bryant Conference Center’s Sellers Auditorium. Tickets are $25 for individuals or $200 for a table of 10. Dress is semiformal.
Among Glover’s film credits are “The Color Purple,” the “Lethal Weapon” and “Dreamgirls.” Glover’s wide-reaching community activism and philanthropic efforts focus on economic justice, access to healthcare and education programs.During the banquet, the Rev. Frank Dukes will receive the Mountaintop Award, a lifetime achievement award, for his work during the civil rights movement and as an educator in Alabama. UA associate professor Ellen Griffith Spears, author of “Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution, and Justice in an All-American Town,” will receive the Call to Conscience Award recognizing leadership and courage that helps to establish social justice, equality and peace. UA junior Marissa Navarro, who founded the Hispanic-Latino Association as a freshman, will receive the Horizon Award recognizing a young adult demonstrating outstanding vision and hope that promotes social justice, equality and peace.
Mary Mary, featuring the Grammy Award-winning sisters Erica and Tina Campbell, will perform during the 2018 Realizing the Dream Concert at 7:30 p.m. Jan. 14 at UA’s Moody Music Concert Hall. Tickets are $15.
The events will continue Jan. 15, with Unity Day. The events, sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference begin at 7 a.m. with the Unity Breakfast at Beulah Baptist Church featuring speaker Joseph Scrivner, pastor at Brown Memorial Presbyterian Church. The Unity Day march begins at noon at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School and will travel to Beulah Baptist Church. The Rev. Tyshawn Gardner, SCLC president and pastor of Plum Grove Baptist Church, will be the speaker. The annual rally begins at 6 p.m. at First African Baptist Church and will feature speaker Bishop L. Spenser Smith, pastor of Impact Nation.
Tickets for both events will go on sale through the Moody Music Building Music Services Office Jan. 3. Office hours are 8 a.m. to noon Monday through Friday.
Dr. M.L. King, Jr. Birthday
Commemoration schedule for
Greene County
47th Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Birthday Celebration
January 12-15, 2018
January 12,10:00 a.m – Student
Educational Seminar
at New Peace Baptist Church
Keynote Speaker,
Mrs. Katie Jones Powell
Former School Superintendent, Sumter County
January 14, 4:00 p.m. – Freedom Gospel Concert
New Generation Church
January 15, 8:30 a.m –
Unity Freedom Breakfast
Eutaw Activity Center
Keynote Speaker,
Rev. Joe Webb Pastor
New Generation Church
January 15,10:15 – Freedom March to
William M. Branch Courthouse
January 15,10:30 a.m. – Godly Women of West Alabama Religious Rally
William M. Branch Courthouse
Keynote Speaker, Dr. Cynthia Warrick,
President, Stillman College, Tuscaloosa, AL.
Sponsored by
Alabama Civil Right Freedom Museum Inc.
Greene County ANSC
Greene County Supportive
Elected Officials
Greene County Brotherhood, Inc.
For more information please contact
Spiver W. Gordon 205-372-3446