- April 25, 2024
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Girls part of the Emmanuel Church Children's Group perform a "Tribute to Dr. King" to the song "Glory," by John Legend. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
MLK Committee members Belinda Davis, George Ward, Hope Fellowship Church Sr. Pastor John Paul McGee, MLK Committee Chair Tina Carlyle and Committee member Veronica Jones. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
MLK Committee Chair Tina Carlyle speaks during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast at SONC. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
ABBA's House of Outreach Ministries Pastor Anthony Nunnally acts at the master of ceremony during the Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast celebration. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Breakfast attendees sing the Black National Anthem. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Shannon Clarke and Candice Heller help serve breakfast at the event. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Daisy Grimes, former Judge Hubert Grimes, Shaunta Williams and Carolyn Parker. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
Keona Nunnally sings a song during the Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast celebration. Photo by Jarleene Almenas
The South Ormond Neighborhood Center rang with voices singing the National Black Anthem the morning of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 20:
"We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,/ We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered;/ Out from the gloomy past, till now we stand at last/ Where the white gleam of our star is cast."
These words from "Lift Every Voice and Sing," written by James Weldon Johnson, filled the SONC gym as the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Breakfast Celebration began. The event, hosted by the city of Ormond Beach and VITAS Healthcare, featured song, dance and speeches from pastors.
One of them was Pastor Anthony Nunnally, of ABBA's House of Outreach Ministries, who acted as the master of ceremony for the breakfast. He said that they had all come together on the holiday to honor the results of King's dream: civil and economic rights for African Americans.
“Today we are able to come here with some tenacious dreamers, some travailing warriors, and some rambunctious leaders," Nunnally said.
It's a dream that still needs to be pursued, said Daisy Grimes, an MLK Committee member who delivered the welcome address at the breakfast. Though King died on April 4, 1968, it wasn't until 1986 that a holiday in his honor was observed.
While the African American community has come a long way since the 1960s, Grimes said they still need to fight for the rights stated in the Declaration of Independence — that all men are created equal.
“We will not stop," Grimes said. "More than in 1968, more than in 1986. In 2020, if we want this country to continue to be the country for democracy, we better fight.”
