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The Cookeville-Putnam NAACP Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration will now be held on February 10.
The luncheon will feature several speakers discussing the strives forward King help make in Civil Rights. The event will also see discussions on what work still needs to be done to achieve equality. Secretary Geeta McMillan said the event moved because of the weather
“Quite frankly, is a rescheduling of the one that we had for January 15,” McMillan said. “I don’t have to tell your listeners, it was not a good day to be out on January 15 due to this crazy snow storm.”
The luncheon will be held at the Algood Methodist Church Family Life Center in Algood starting at 11:30am. There is a $15 charge for the event.
“The bottom line is, we’re all in this together,” McMillan said. “Everything, what’s going on around us in the world, particularly now with the level of everything from changing what we teach in history, the books that are banned, the minorities, not just African Americans, but all folks who find their privileges and their abilities to, quite frankly, be free Americans have been challenged in a lot of different avenues. It’s really important to get together and know we are not alone in this struggle.”
McMillan said one of the highlights of the event will be Morris Irby reading the speech King made at the March on Washington in 1963.
“If anyone knows Morris you know he has such a powerful voice,” McMillan said. “It is a very moving speech no matter how many times you’ve heard it.”
The event will also feature live choir music. Tennessee Tech’s Gabe DuBois will also be reading passages of King’s letter from a Birmingham, Alabama jail where he was held after being arrested for parading without a permit.
“We need to make sure that our America becomes an America that is freedom for everybody,” McMillan said. “My constitutional rights should be the same as my neighbor’s constitutional rights, and we feel very strongly about that.”
McMillan said all are welcome to attend the event not just those associated with the NAACP.
