PANAMA CITY — The men and women behind Bay County’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration are getting grayer and calling on younger people to do their part to carry on the demonstration.
“I would like to see that fire in the gut revived because there are a lot of problems in this community,” said John Bruce. “I think we all have a responsibility, young or old.”
Organizers of the event hope elderly demonstrators will cheer on in solidarity along the march route.
“That’s why we’re trying to get younger people involved, because the older people can’t walk the distance,” said Myron Hines, a spokesman for the Advisory Committee for Urban Revitalization Equity (ACURE), which organizes the annual event.
A $100 reward will be given to the youth group that has the largest representation at the event.
Bruce, the 80-year-old community activist, former teacher and founding member of the Advisory Committee for Urban Revitalization Equity (ACURE), was instrumental in organizing a march in Bay County in 1987.
Petitioning for the march — and then successfully pulling it off — led “strong and courageous young people who were willing to fight for what we believed in” to petition for other things, such as making the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday a legal holiday in the county, starting a festival at the park and pushing for the MLK monument to be erected at the courthouse.
This Saturday’s march will begin at the Bay County Courthouse, 300 E. Fourth St., travel eastbound to Fourth Street, move north on Cove Boulevard, cross U.S. 98 onto Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and head toward 11th Street. The procession then will turn west on 11th Street, continue to Harrison Avenue and travel back to Fourth Street, turning east toward the courthouse.
Registration starts at 10:30 a.m. and the march starts at noon. Commemorative shirts featuring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela will be available.
A short rally will take place after the march. The guest speaker will be Marley Peters, daughter of attorney Alvin Peters.
Despite the face of the march aging, motivation to march hasn’t budged.
ACURE marches with political objectives, Hines said. Issues that ignited the civil rights era are the same issues people face today.
OFFICES CLOSED
Governmental offices closed MLK Day include:
- Bay District Schools
- Bay County Board of Commissioners office
- Supervisor of Elections Office
- Bay County Sheriff’s Office
- Bay County Courthouse
- Bay County Library
WANT TO GO?
- What: Martin Luther King Jr. Day march
- When: Saturday. Registration starts at 10:30 a.m.; march starts at noon
- Where: Bay County Courthouse, 300 E. Fourth St.
- Details: For info, contact Myron Hines at 276-1097; for commemorative shirts, contact Charlotte Marshall at 271-0560.