The 2015 Drew County MLK Celebration Committee has announced that the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration will take place Saturday through Monday in Monticello.
The traditional MLK March and Breakfast will be held Saturday with a march from the town square to Holmes Chapel Presbyterian Church at 527 E. McCloy for the breakfast. Those taking part in the march are asked to meet at the town square at 7:45 a.m. with the march beginning at 8 a.m.
The breakfast theme is And Justice for All. Coordinator Brenda Binns is asking the public to wear a combination of black, white, brown, blue and/or red. Tickets for the breakfast are $5 and can be purchased at the door. Children 18 and under eat for free.
The breakfast speaker will be the Rev. Alonzo Redic III, pastor of Greater Shady Grove AME Church of Wilmar.
Sunday at 5 p.m. there will be a Youth Explosion Crusade and MLK Movement Trivia Contest held at Revival Center COGIC, 311 S. Pine St. City youths are performing in honor of King. Those taking part should have knowledge of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. movement. There will be first-, second- and third-place winners. The Rev. Datrick Wiley will serve as master of ceremonies.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The finale celebration will be 6 p.m. Monday at Holmes Chapel Presbyterian Church, 527 E. McCloy St. There will be a performance by the MLK Youth Community Choir under the leadership of the Rev. Robert Webb, Korsica Robinson and Gabriel Pace, and a special guest performance by the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church dance team of Dermott.
The Arkansas Minority Health Commission will present A Healthy Moment with public information on good health-care presented by Lisa Henderson.
The 2015 MLK honorees will be the Rev. Michael Jones, Angela Jackson, Goodman Logging Company, and AmeriCorps Volunteers Chris Spencer and T-Cambry Green. The committee selects Drew County citizens who have exemplified acts of service to their community.
Guest speaker will be Clarissa Pace of Monticello. Pace is a native of El Dorado who moved to the community in 1985. She graduated from Capital City Junior College of Business in Little Rock where she majored in radio/television broadcasting. She returned to the community to become the first black assistant newspaper editor of the Advance-Monticellonian newspaper. She used the power of the pen to express community concerns and assist in bringing about change in Drew County through her weekly newspaper column.
She also served on the Drew County War on Drugs Committee under the leadership of former Arkansas Attorney General Steve Clark. She served on the steering committee that established the Drew County Boys and Girls Club. She served for several years as talent show and pageant coordinator for the Drew County Fair Board Association and helped re-establish community Neighborhood Watch programs. She served on the committee to establish the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday observation in the local school system and has served for several years in various capacities assisting the Drew County MLK Celebration.
She is presently serves as the chairperson of the Drew County Single Parent Scholarship Board.
Pace owns her own business and is a published author. She is married to Jerome Pace, who is an administrator and coach in the McGehee School District. She has five children and five grandchildren. She is a member of the Revival Center Church of God in Christ, serving as a member of the music department and teen Sunday school teacher. She is a licensed missionary evangelist with the Third Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction of Arkansas, Church of God in Christ Inc.
The MLK Celebration is sponsored by the Drew County NAACP Chapter No. 6042 and the Arkansas Minority Health Commission.
MLK Celebration Committee members include Chairman the Rev. D.J. Buffington, Clarissa Pace, Angelia Anderson, Bettina Gragg Randolph, Bettye Gragg, Linda Johnson, Joe Williams and MLK March and Breakfast Chairwoman Brenda Binns.