Theme is “Our Children, Our Future”
MANCHESTER, NEW HAMPSHIRE – Dr. Dottie Morris of Keene State College will receive the 2019 Martin Luther King Jr. Award, and Young Organizers United, a local youth activist group, will be given the Vanessa Johnson Award at the 37st annual Martin Luther King Jr Day Community Celebration on Monday, January 21, to be held for the first time at Temple Adath Yeshurun in Manchester.
The theme of this year’s celebration is “Our Children, Our Future.”
The Celebration, sponsored by the Martin Luther King Coalition, kicks off with desserts donated by area restaurants at 2 PM, followed by the program from 3 to 5 PM.
Ron Walker, executive director of the Coalition of Schools Educating Boys of Color, will give the keynote speech. Reverend Eric Jackson of Brookside Congregational Church and head of the Greater Manchester NAACP will serve as emcee. The Greater Manchester Area Choir will share musical selections and lead the crowd in “We Shall Overcome” to close the event.
The Celebration is open to all, free of charge, with donations accepted to cover the Coalition’s expenses. City Year will also collect donations for the New Hampshire Food Bank at the event.
Temple Adath Yeshurun is located at 152 Prospect Street in Manchester.
American Sign Language interpretation will be provided by students from UNH Manchester.
Dr. Dottie Morris is the Associate Vice President for Institutional Diversity and Equity at Keene State College, where her main foci are providing support to the Executive, Academic Student Affairs, Advancement and Finance and Planning divisions of the college as the institution works to fulfill its commitment to diversity and multiculturalism. She is a member of the Governor’s Commission on Diversity and Inclusion. In recognizing Dr. Morris with this year’s award, the Martin Luther King Coalition says, “Dr. Morris has become one of the state’s top ‘go to’ people for communities that want to better understand the impact of racism.”
Young Organizers United, a program of the Granite State Organizing Project, is a group of high school aged activists from diverse backgrounds who come together to advocate for the rights of people of color, immigrants, and students within the Manchester Community. The Vanessa Johnson Award, which the Coalition gives to spotlight the work of emerging community leaders, is going to Y.O.U. to showcase its work embracing policies of inclusiveness to protect individuals against discrimination based on race, gender, sexual orientation, economic status, disability, age, or other categorization used to oppress one group for the benefit of another.
The Martin Luther King Coalition is made up of the American Friends Service Committee – NH, City Year NH, Granite State Organizing Project, Greater Manchester Black Scholarship Foundation, Manchester Education Association (MEA), Greater Manchester NAACP, National Education Association-NH (NEA – NH), American Civil Liberties Union-NH, New Hampshire Council of Churches, New Hampshire State Employees Association/SEIU Local 1984, New Hampshire Veterans for Peace, Open Democracy, Temple Adath Yeshurun, Sisters of Mercy Northeast Community, Unitarian Universalist Church of Manchester, University of New Hampshire-Manchester, and YWCA-NH. The Coalition has sponsored Martin Luther King, Jr. Day celebrations in Manchester every year since 1983.