Many events celebrating the life of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. got underway last week. Governor Roy Cooper delivered remarks Friday at the annual State Employees program to observe the life of King. Still the list of Monday's commemorations is long.
The 38th Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Triangle Interfaith Prayer Breakfast begins early Monday morning. Breakfast is served beginning at 6 a.m. at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel in Research Triangle Park. More than 1,000 people are expected to attend. This year's speaker is Rabbi Lucy Dinner, Temple Beth Or.
In Durham, people are expected to line up at the North Carolina Mutual Life Insurance Company building for the annual Unity March and Rally. There is also a King Memorial March in Raleigh, from the state capitol building. Participants are expected to begin lining up at 10am.
In Greensboro, the International Civil Rights Center and Museum is hosting a MLK Film Fest. Between 10 a.m. and noon, it will show King giving one of his most influential speeches, his last speech, “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.”
“Well I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn't matter with me now, because I’ve been to the Mountaintop," King said to rousing audience in Memphis, April 3, 1968, the day before he was assassinated.
Service projects will also be underway across the region. The United Way of the Greater Triangle will be at North Carolina Central University packing meals and assembling diaper kits for children in day care. Several employees at Bayer Crop Science will spend the day at the Ronald McDonald House of Durham and Wake, cooking meals and cleaning.
And wrapping up the day in Raleigh, the Triangle Martin Luther King Jr. Committee will host a celebration of music at 5:30 p.m. at the Duke Energy Center for the Performing Arts. The Martin Luther King All Children's Choir and others will perform.