On April 4, 2018, from 6:30pm to 8:00pm, the MLK 50-Year Commemoration Commission will hold an event at Williston Gymnasium to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King and his commitment to promoting peace, social justice and reconciliation. All are invited to attend.
Many people, including local residents, are not aware of the history of April 4, 1968.
On the night Dr. King was shot and killed in Memphis, he was supposed to be in Wilmington for a voter registration rally. Dr. King canceled his appearance in Wilmington to stay in Memphis for a sanitation workers’ strike.
The commission is chaired by District Attorney Ben David and Bertha Todd, a retired school administrator.
“He was a man of all seasons and people and he believed in helping move justice, so I think we as New Hanover County and the city of Wilmington need to recognize the importance of a man who gave his life for humanity,” Todd said.
“He brought a whole community together and there are many of us in this community who would love to carry that legacy forward. He’s internationally loved now but that wasn’t the way it was in 1950 and we need to understand that history,” Ben David said. “Some of us weren’t alive at the time. Some of us were here. We’re diverse in every respect. We come from all backgrounds. We invited the whole community to be a part of this process.”
Faith leaders will be deeply involved and Ben David has asked ministers at all downtown churches to ring their bells at 7:01 p.m., the exact time King was killed.
The hashtag #MLK50ILM will be used on social media to spread information about the event.
Please join us April 4.
We are better together.
