A message of community service will underscore four events scheduled in Vicksburg to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. over the holiday weekend, beginning with a parade along Washington Street Saturday afternoon.

“The theme you’re going to hear all weekend long is service above self,” said Mayor Paul Winfield, who will be grand marshal for the 3 p.m. parade. “We’re going to use the holiday to kick off a day of service throughout the city, and we’re hoping that message will perpetuate itself in Vicksburg throughout the year.”

If you go

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in Vicksburg include:

• Saturday, 3 p.m. — Downtown parade along Washington Street.

• Monday, 8:30 a.m. — Scholarship breakfast at Vicksburg Convention Center; $20; 601-631-3948.

• Monday, 8:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. — Community service project at The Initiative Inc., 1306 Hope St.; volunteers may register by calling 601-630-4048 or 601-630-4045.

• Monday, 6 p.m. — “Remember! Celebrate! Act!; A Day On, Not A Day Off” program at Vicksburg Auditorium; free.

Winfield said he will be on hand for all three events, beginning with the 21st annual scholarship breakfast sponsored by the Omicron Rho Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. The breakfast begins at 8:30 a.m. at Vicksburg Convention Center and will feature Judge Tyree Irving of the Mississippi Court of Appeals as the keynote speaker. Tickets are $20 and are available in advance or at the door.

The breakfast annually draws about 200 people, said organizer and chapter president Lewis Burke. Omicron Rho Lambda Educational Foundation will award several scholarships to local seventh-graders who have submitted essays on King. The foundation awards about $5,000 in scholarships to local junior high and high school students each year, Burke said.

Coinciding with the scholarship breakfast will be the kickoff of a morning-long community service project benefiting The Initiative, a local nonprofit organization providing temporary affordable housing for families with children. As one of 18 cities included in the nationwide Cities of Service Initiative, the City of Vicksburg is partnering with the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps to organize the event, which will involve sprucing up the apartment complex on Hope Street with new paint, carpet, tile and landscaping projects.

“Vicksburg is a small city, but we have great ability,” Winfield said. “We’re going to have as much, if not more, going on in our city on Martin Luther King Jr. Day as some of the largest cities in the service coalition. Our staging area will be at The Initiative, but based on turnout we may also be sending volunteers to other projects throughout the city.”

On Monday evening at 6 the Mississippi Chapter of Blacks in Government, the Vicksburg NAACP and the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Day Committee will jointly host the “Remember! Celebrate! Act!; A Day On, Not A Day Off” event at the Vicksburg Auditorium. Admission is free, and keynote speaker Dr. Ivory Phillips — vice president of the Jackson Public Schools Board and radio show host — will be introduced by former Vicksburg Mayor Robert Walker. Bobbie Bingham Morrow, one of the event’s organizers, said the program is aimed at encouraging the kind of community service and activism King championed his entire life.

“Dr. King didn’t sit at home and do nothing, and there’s no reason why anybody should sit at home this whole weekend when there’s so many community service projects to get involved in,” Morrow said. “Dr. King sacrificed everything — his family, his career and his life — so that everyone, regardless of race, color or creed, could have a better life. We’re encouraging people to bring their families to learn a little bit about Dr. King and think about what they can do to serve their communities the way he did.”

Meanwhile, Martin Luther King Jr. Day events will also take place Monday in Port Gibson and at Alcorn State University in Lorman on Thursday. The annual celebration at the First Baptist Church in Port Gibson will feature Judge Irving as the keynote speaker at 10:30 a.m. The event will follow a 10 a.m. parade through downtown Port Gibson. Thomas N. Todd, an activist and attorney, will be the keynote speaker at Alcorn State’s annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Convocation in the Oakland Memorial Chapel at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. Admission to both events is free. 

King, the face of nonviolent civil rights activism in the 1960s, would have celebrated his 81st birthday today. He was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968. In 1964, he became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work to end racial segregation and discrimination. By the time of his death, he had also turned his attention to ending poverty and opposing the Vietnam War. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday was established in 1986 by President Ronald Reagan.

In addition to events planned, students at Vicksburg Warren School District, Porters Chapel Academy and Vicksburg Catholic School will not meet classes Monday; and non-emergency city, county, state and federal offices will be closed.

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com