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City, civil rights groups to host dueling MLK events

Both events are seeking to be the torch-bearer for the long-running event by billing themselves as the 32nd annual breakfast

A split between civil rights organizations and City Hall over planning of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast means there will be two MLK celebrations Friday morning at the same time in different locations.

Both events are seeking to be the torch-bearer for the long-running event by billing themselves as the 32nd annual breakfast in Jacksonville for King’s legacy.

The Jacksonville branch of the NAACP, the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Jacksonville Urban League are presenting an MLK breakfast that will run from 7:30 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. at the Lexington Hotel & Conference Center on the Southbank.

A couple of miles away, the city will be hosting an MLK breakfast at the Prime Osborn Convention Center, where doors will open at 7 a.m. and the event will begin at 8 a.m.

The unusual situation, requiring attendees to choose which event they go to when celebrating King, comes after leaders of the NAACP and Southern Christian Leadership Conference say that while their organizations were behind the start of the annual breakfasts in 1987, the city took over the decision-making for the event in recent years. The civil rights organizations are bringing the breakfast back to its roots, said Isaiah Rumlin, president of the Jacksonville branch of the NAACP.

He said the breakfast is not a criticism of any policies of city government.

“Not at all,” he said. “This is not a protest breakfast. This is a breakfast that was started by civil rights organizations 32 years ago. We do not wish to make it a controversial breakfast. It is a breakfast that these groups started, and we’re going to continue to do these breakfasts.”

Mayor Lenny Curry said the city invited the NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to join the host committee for the breakfast hosted by the city. The Jacksonville Urban League is on the city’s host committee.

“Dr. King’s remarkable life is worthy of celebration; there’s plenty of room to honor the tremendous contributions and sacrifices he made to and for our nation,” Curry said in a statement.

He said that while the city continues to extend the invitation to the organizations to be on the host committee for future breakfasts, “we respect and applaud their efforts to also recognize Dr. King’s legacy in the manner they deem best reflects his vision.”

The NAACP and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference sent a letter in January 2017 saying planning for the 2018 MLK Breakfast should be done by the NAACP, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the Urban League.

“It got to the point where the city was making all the decisions, leaving us out,” Rumlin said. “They weren’t accepting any of our recommendations or suggestions. We just got fed up with it and decided we were going to take control of the breakfast.”

The city later created the host committee for the MLK breakfast and invited the organizations to be part of that group for planning the January 2018 breakfast, but the NAACP and Southern Christian Leadership Conference repeated their stance that the event should be led by the civil rights groups. They followed through this year, joined by the Jacksonville Urban League and the African-American Ministers Leadership Council as presenters of the breakfast.

Their breakfast originally booked Edward Waters College President A. Zachary Faison Jr. as keynote speaker as a way to build the event around supporting the college, Rumlin said. Organizers made public announcements about Faison’s appearance, but Faison subsequently said he had a scheduling conflict and could not be at the breakfast, Rumlin said.

Edward Waters College issued a statement Wednesday saying that while Faison “had an unfortunate conflict that has precluded his availability” to serve as speaker this year, the college is “pleased to support” the breakfast as a signature table sponsor “where members of his executive cabinet will be in attendance in his absence.”

The keynote speaker at the breakfast hosted by the city will be Chris Gardner, an entrepreneur whose best-selling autobiography “The Pursuit of Happyness” was made into a movie by the same name. He also works with the U.S. Veterans Administration to end homelessness among veterans, and his aim is to “help others achieve their full potential,” according to the city’s announcement.

The city says it expects record attendance at the Prime Osborn Convention Center with 1,500 people registered.

A third breakfast in honor of King will occur at 8 a.m. Saturday when the Baptist Ministers Conference of Duval and Adjacent Counties has its 20th annual breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Riverfront Hotel in downtown. The guest speaker will be U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, who previously was mayor of Kansas City.

Rumlin said he would like to see all the MLK breakfasts combined into one event, provided the civil rights organizations take the organizational lead for the event program.

As for the choice people face Friday morning, he said it’s up to attendees where they would like to celebrate King. He said the breakfast has always been on the Friday morning before the federal holiday on Monday marking King’s birthday, so that’s the time the civil rights group decided to use.

“Everyone can go where they want to go,” Rumlin said. “We’re not trying to force anybody. The only thing we know is that we’re going to have a sell-out.”

David Bauerlein: (904) 359-4581

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