JACKSON, Tenn. – Residents came together to mark the life Rev Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community leaders honored King’s legacy with a Call of Service, and special worship services. The Mt. Zion Baptist Church hosted this years services.
Rev. Dr. Jesse Lee Douglas was the keynote speaker. Minister, civil rights activist, In 1960 Douglas was elected president of the Montgomery Improvement Association (MIA), an organization founded in 1955 in response to the Montgomery Bus Boycott and first headed by Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. Douglas became a close confidant of Rev Dr King.
Other guests included; state representatives Jimmy Eldrige and Johnny Shaw and Jackson-Madison County NAACP President Harrell Carter. The service included music from Lane College choir. At the National Civil Rights Museum, in the city where the civil rights leader was assassinated, visitors gathered for performances, youth-centered educational programs, a blood donation drive and a food drive.
King was killed while standing on a balcony at the old Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968. The motel has been turned into the National Civil Rights Museum.
