News Center 7′s Gabrielle Enright said the cold weather did not stop people from marching and honoring a man who did so much.
“Dr. King made the ultimate sacrifice,” said Angela Worley, Dayton Pubic School Coordinator of Community Outreach Family Engagement and Student Activities. “He gave his life for helping others for what he believed was right.”
What Dr. King believed in was equality for everyone, something he spoke about in Alabama and Washington D.C. before he was shot and killed in April 1968.
Enright says Worley helped organize Dayton Public Schools community drive-thru donation event. She said she wanted to continue Dr. King’s message in her own way.
“This really helps us to teach us to take care of our own, to support our own,” said Worley. “We are donating and we are contributing but its all staying right back in our community and right back supporting us.”
Each person who drove through got a special bag filled with personal care items. It was a small token to let them know someone cares.
Enright says Dayton’s chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the First African American sorority, also stepped up and helped made a difference in their community, just like Dr. King did.
“(Monday) Today is Martin Luther King Day and as you know he was a community servant,” said Cynthia Booker-Neilson. “This day we celebrate MLK not as a day off, but a day of service, our mission is service to all mankind.”
The City of Fairborn also hosted several events in honor MLK Day. About two dozen people took part in a unity walk and then many participated in an art and essay contest.
Martin Luther King Junior day was officially recognized as a national holiday in 1986.
January 15 was chosen because it is Doctor King’s birthday.
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Dayton MLK March
Dayton MLK March
Dayton MLK March
Dayton MLK March
Dayton MLK March Courtesy of WHIO (Courtesy of WHIO)
Dayton MLK March Courtesy of WHIO (Courtesy of WHIO)
Dayton MLK March Courtesy of WHIO (Courtesy of WHIO)
Dayton MLK March Courtesy of WHIO (Courtesy of WHIO)
Dayton MLK March Courtesy of WHIO (Courtesy of WHIO)
Dayton MLK March Courtesy of WHIO (Courtesy of WHIO)
Dayton MLK March Courtesy of WHIO (Courtesy of WHIO)
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King at the age of 6. (Handout)
King graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 and from Boston University in 1955. (Southern Christian Leadership Conference/Handout)
While in Boston, he met Coretta Scott. They married in 1953 and would eventually have four children: Yolanda, Martin III, Dexter and Bernice. (Bahnsen Negative Collection/Handout)
In 1955, as the pastor of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, King was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the organization that was responsible for the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott from 1955 to 1956. (Gene Herrick/AP)
King's battle with the law continued. He was arrested thirty times for his participation in civil rights activities. Here he is being charged with loitering in 1958. (Charles Moore)
When he wasn't part of the civil rights struggle, King was a family man. He's seen here with his wife, Coretta, and four children (from left to right) Dexter, Yolanda, Martin Luther King III and Bernice.
In August 1963, thousands gathered for the March on Washington where King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech. (File photo/AP)
In 1964, King received the Nobel Peace Prize from the hands of Gunnar Jahn, Chairman of the Nobel Committee, in Oslo, Norway. At the time he was the youngest man ever to receive the prize. (File photo/AP)
On July 2, 1964, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964, with King and other civil rights leaders present. (File photo/AP)
Bishop B. Jlian Smith, of the Episcopal District of the Christian Methodist Church (left), King (center), and Rev. Ralph Abernathy (right) during a civil rights march in Memphis, Tenn. in 1968. (File photo/AP)
The next day, an assassin's bullet struck King as he once again stood on the balcony. In June, James Early Ray was arrested in London and charged with King's murder. (File photo/AP/Time Inc.)
The family of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. walk in the funeral procession of the slain civil rights leader on April 9, 1968. (File photo)
In 1983, after years of fighting, Coretta Scott King (left) was successful in getting her late husband's birthday recognized as a national holiday. Here, President Ronald Reagan signs the legislation. (File photo)
