RICHMOND, Ky. (LEX 18) — As faith leaders prepare for Monday’s events to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., the hope is that the whole is greater than the sum of these events.
“Not just the celebration of a holiday, but to continue the influence of Dr. Martin Luther King,” said Rev. Mitch Brown.
Rev. Brown is President of the Madison County/Richmond branch of the NAACP. He said there's been some progress over the years, specific to the black community in Richmond, but it's not enough.
“We’re seeing improvement in the area as far as economic empowerment,” he explained, “but I would like to see improvement on the opposite side of the tracks where it’s out of the sight of someone passing through,” Rev. Brown continued.
It’s coming up on four years since the shooting death of Breonna Taylor in Louisville. Coupled with George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer months later, it triggered a summer of unrest across the nation. Faith leaders hoped to use those two tragedies to spark real change. But it hasn’t completely worked out that way.
“Over the last decade, we have seen a regression nationwide in so much of the civil rights he proposed,” Rev. Brown said of Dr. King.
Reverend Brown will march in Richmond at 10:00 a.m. on Monday. Lexington will hold its annual Martin Luther King Day march at 1:00 p.m. A unity breakfast in Lexington begins the day’s festivities at 6:30 a.m.
