MEADVILLE —
The 26th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Banquet will celebrate the life and legacy of the civil rights legend in a new location.
Monday at 6 p.m., United Faith Fellowship Church of God will carry on the annual tradition at St. Brigid Social Hall, 383 Arch St., Meadville. In previous years, the event has taken place at the Family & Community Christian Association on Chestnut Street, formerly known as the YWCA of Meadville.
“We’re excited about the fact that we’re able to do it,” Pastor Berta Newsome-Jones said Wednesday, noting that the FCCA has different plans for their facility this year. “We’re grateful that we’re able to host it in a new venue.”
The Rev. Dr. Cheviene Jones, a preacher, teacher, writer and singer currently serving the Jones Chapel AME Church in Elyria, Ohio, will be the keynote speaker.
As a member of one of the many ministerial families in the Atlanta area in the late 1950s and 1960s, Jones met the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King personally on several occasions. As a student at Atlanta’s Morris Brown College, where he minored in music, he took voice lessons under the tutelage of Coretta Scott King.
In a 1994 article reviewing the second of two fund-raising performances Jones put on during his first two years as pastor of Bethel AME Church in south-central Los Angeles (raising a total of approximately $26,000 for college scholarships and family-oriented church programs), the Los Angeles Times detailed a range of accomplishments that started with singing in church at age 5 “in a voice he describes as ‘a gift of God’”; five years on the road as a professional musician (“people like Cannonball Adderly told me I could play,” he recalled); a bachelor’s degree in mathematics; graduate studies in business administration and an eight-year stint as an engineer with Western Electric (the manufacturing arm of AT&T) before the Lord directed his attention to the ministry.
“Oh yes, one other thing,” the Times continued. “At theology school, Jones focused on Old Testament studies (he is fluent in Hebrew) and has spent years researching an exposition of passages from the Old and New Testaments for a book titled ‘Uncovering the Ark of the Covenant.’ For the record, he also belts out a mean ‘Old Time Religion.’ ”
Jones participated in civil rights demonstrations in downtown Atlanta, where he was active with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Following King’s assassination in 1968, he attended the funeral services and walked in the funeral procession, according to banquet organizers.
“We’re excited about our keynote speaker,” Newsome-Jones said. “The lineup will be great. We’re going to have a great time.”
The cost of Monday’s banquet is $10 per person.
n For reservations: Call 336-4124. Tickets will also be available at the door.
Mary Spicer can be reached at 724-6370 or by email at mspicer@meadvilletribune.com.
The 26th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Banquet will celebrate the life and legacy of the civil rights legend on Monday at 6 p.m. at St. Brigid Social Hall, 383 Arch St., Meadville. In previous years, the event has taken place at the Family & Community Christian Association on Chestnut Street, formerly known as the YWCA of Meadville.
-Reservations: Call 336-4124. Tickets will also be available at the door.
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