For many adults, it will be difficult to comprehend tomorrow that 45 years have whirled across the earth since an assassin’s bullet passed through Dr. Martin Luther King’s unsuspecting – but not unsuspicious – body as he stood on a balcony in Memphis.
Isn’t it impossible to digest that the years since his death are longer than the years of his life, a mere 39?
Technicolor memories of Dr. King abbreviated but historic life will spin back to the forefront of national consciousness on Saturday when millions – including Culver City – pause to honor a man who changed history, who changed our country and the world, more than perhaps any American since Abraham Lincoln.
For six hours beginning at 12 noon tomorrow at the Senior Center, a dazzling lineup of celebrities and otherwise celebrated personalities will explore and teach about Dr. King, his life, his legacy, his lessons, and most of all, his legend.
One of the Los Angeles community’s authentic stars of the mid-century civil rights era, the Rev. James Lawson, who marched with Dr. King, will be the keynote speaker.
Here is the balance of the gleaming lineup:
- Roger Guenveur Smith and April Sutton will be the emcees.
- Dr. Earl Ofari Hutchinson will moderate a panel that will include Freedom Rider Robert Farrell, former member of the Los Angeles City Council, Freedom Rider Ellen Broms, and Freedom Rider Dr. Robert Singleton of Loyola Marymount University.
- A screening of “MLK: The Assassination Tapes.”
- The Agape Children’s Choir will perform “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”
- Dr. Darnell Hunt, Director of the UCLA Dr. Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, will speak.
- Actor Gerald Rivers will dramatically recreate a selection of Dr. King’s speeches.
- The West Los Angeles College Jazz Ensemble will entertain.
- Winners of the Culver City students’ speech contest emphatically will entertain.
