LOXLEY, Alabama -- About 20 souls braved frigid temperatures marching up Alabama 59 in Loxley on Monday, Jan. 15 as the Loxley Area Martin Luther King Group held its 13th annual march and program.
A total of 40 residents were on hand at the Loxley Civic Center following the march. Guest speaker for the event was Dr. Tom Ellison of Birmingham, speaking on the subject, “It is up to us to change the game.”
A native of Birmingham, the son of a Birmingham minister, Ellison became involved in the Civil Rights movement at a young age, following his father and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. around the country staging peaceful protests and marches, including the Selma to Montgomery marches that would come to define the movement.
Having earned both a medical degree and a Ph.D., Ellison founded Project H.E.L.P. in 1987, providing innovative community-based projects in hypertension, teen pregnancy prevention, violence prevention, health promotion, substance misuse, health disparities, community based research, STI,HIV/AIDS prevention, workforce development and youth enhancement.
Each year, the nationwide Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service is held on the third Monday of January to commemorate his birthday on Jan. 15.
Introduced as legislation by U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania and Atlanta Congressman John Lewis, MLK Day was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994.
Marches held in King’s honor commemorate the 1965 marches from Selma to Montgomery that created national support for federal voting rights legislation.
