For the second year in a row, Jacksonville will have two major Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfasts Friday, but some community leaders said having dueling events is not necessarily a bad thing.
The 33rd annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Empowerment Breakfast will be sponsored by three civil rights organizations — the Jacksonville Branch NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the African American Ministers Leadership Council — at the Hyatt Regency Jacksonville Riverfront.
Meanwhile, a couple of miles away the city of Jacksonville will host what it calls the 33rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast at the Prime Osborn Convention Center.
“It’s our obligation as a city to honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” said Nikki Kimbleton, the city’s director of public affairs. “If another organization chooses to hold an additional event, we are in full support. In fact, that’s been the case with multiple events taking place throughout the last few years. In a city the size of Jacksonville, this provides more opportunity for citizens to attend an event celebrating the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King.”
Thirty-two years ago the first King breakfast was founded by the Jacksonville NAACP, the Urban League and JAX Chamber, according to local NAACP President Isaiah Rumlin. Later the chamber pulled out and, at the NAACP’s invitation, then-Mayor John Peyton agreed to the city becoming a sponsor, Rumlin said.
In recent years Mayor Lenny Curry’ administration made the key decisions and the civil rights group that founded the event “had no input,” Rumlin said. “We did not know about the budget, how the money was spent,” he said, and any “involvement we put up was rejected.”
So in 2019 the group organized its own event and will continue to do so “until we can come to some type of agreement” that includes civil rights groups being the lead sponsors,” he said. “If the city wants to join us, we would love that.”
But Rumlin said he did not anticipate that happening any time soon.
The slain civil rights leader’s son, Martin Luther King III, a human rights activist and humanitarian, will be the keynote speaker for the NAAACP event. Entrepreneur Omar Johnson, former chief marketing officer at Beats by Dre and former vice president of marketing at Apple, will speak at the city event.
City Councilwoman Brenda Priestly Jackson said she plans to make an an appearance at both observances.
“Two MLK Breakfasts don’t trouble me,” she said in a series of Twitter posts.
The city and civil rights groups’ “missions are different and often conflicting,” she said. “The purposes of the NAACP and COJ [city of Jacksonville] aren’t necessarily aligned exactly right now.”
Priestly Jackson said her late father was a lifetime NAACP member and part of its local executive team.
“I respect and admire the long road of justice fought by the NAACP,” she said. “Without the NAACP, I wouldn’t enjoy the access and education I have. Their fights for justice help shape me. They in many ways forced the COJ [city] to ‘do right.’”
But the city of Jacksonville is “our” government and she is a council member, she said.
Kyle Reese, former senior pastor of Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church, is deputy director of One Jax, an interfaith nonprofit that promotes diversity and works to increase respect among local religious, ethnic, racial and cultural groups.
He noted Priestly Jackson’s comments and said One Jax took the same view. The respective events’ hosts are “two very different organizations with different missions,” he said.
Also, they are not the only local observances of the King holiday.
“What speaks well for our community is that there are not just two breakfasts, but celebrations and observances all over town celebrating his vision,” he said.
Among them is the annual Martin Luther King Day Parade, presented Monday by the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation Inc. of Jacksonville.
The city-sponsored breakfast will also feature the Tomorrow’s Leaders awards, which recognize youth “who exemplify the philosophies of Dr. King through leadership, community volunteerism and civic responsibility,” according to the city.
The 2020 honorees are Ben Chau, Central Riverside Elementary School; Niveah Glover, LaVilla School of the Arts; and Taiwo Sogbesan, Bolles High School.
Beth Reese Cravey: (904) 359-4109