The Mamaroneck High School Multi-Cultural Club, the Hommocks Seventh Grade Choir, and students from Rye Neck High School will perform at the 25th Martin Luther King, Jr. public celebration, Wed, January 11th, at the Hommocks Auditorium in Larchmont at 7:30 PM.
Civil rights leader and Senior Pastor Emeritus of New York’s Riverside Church, Dr. James A. Forbes, will deliver the keynote address. (more about Dr. Forbes below)
John Gitlitz, a social-activist and Purchase College professor from Mamaroneck Village, who helped safeguard local immigrant rights, will receive the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Award. Paula Eisenberg and Dr. Judy Silberstein, the two founders of the all-volunteer Larchmont Gazette, the community’s first digital newspaper, will be given a special tribute. (earlier story)
In 1989, Dr. Forbes became the first African American minister of the multicultural Riverside Church built by John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1937. He retired in 2007. Newsweek described him some years back as “one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world.” Before joining the Church, he was a professor for nine years at Union Theological Seminary.
In his talk, “Looking Back, Moving Forward,” Dr. Forbes is expected to examine racial economic discrimination and the loss to this country by the underestimation of minorities.
Riverside Church has a long history of advocating for the poor, the disenfranchised and for peace. Dr. King delivered his famous “Beyond Vietnam” speech at the church on April 4, 1967, a year to the day before he was murdered.
— Submitted by Harold Wolfson
top photo: flickr: us embassy new delhi
bottom photo: Harold Wolfson
