Mat-Su Martin Luther King Jr. foundation hosts celebration

PALMER, Alaska (KTUU) - Speakers, artists, and dancers of Alaska gathered at the Glenn Massay Theater on Monday to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

“I want you to celebrate Dr. King, but I also want you to take into your heart that heartbeat that we talked about — that universal one, us all together, that making this a better world,” former president of the Alaska Chapter of the NAACP Dr. Cal Williams said. “Let’s join hands together, let’s join hearts together, let’s be together in that motion of freedom and full expression.”

Among those who took the stage were students of the Alaska Job Corps — performimg traditional Inupiaq dances and songs — the Wasilla High School Choir, and the Alaska Acoustic Project.

“In 1956, King proclaimed the end is reconciliation. The end is redemption. The end is the creation of a beloved community,” Alaska Army National Guard Chaplain Rev. Marcus Sanders said.

The mission statement of the Mat-Su Martin Luther King foundation is “unifying ethnicities and faiths through events and educational opportunities,” and events like today’s help fulfill that mission.

Martin Luther King Day is a federal holiday that takes place on the third Monday of every January. It is a day to celebrate the work of Martin Luther King Jr. and his accomplishments as a leader of the Civil Rights Movement.

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