"This piece of Detroit-first history sharpens what Martin Luther King Jr. Day asks of the city. It's harder to treat the holiday, celebrated on Monday, as a slogan when the dream was first spoken aloud in Detroit. It's also harder to see it as a day off when a lot of people choose to mark it every year as a day on."
"Their members measure the weeks before Martin Luther King Jr. Day in labor. They assemble toiletry kits for Detroiters without stable housing, volunteer their time to youth programs focused on combating hunger and fostering leadership skills, and step into the gaps families are already navigating, like hunger and lack of resources."
""Our work really is about uplifting our community; that is really at the heart of what we do," Sewell said. "It is sisterhood and service for the betterment of our local community, that's really the essence and the spirit of our chapter.""
Detroit was the first place Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered an early version of what became his "I Have a Dream" speech, recited June 23, 1963, at the end of Detroit's Walk to Freedom. That history frames Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Detroit as a call to action rather than a day off. The Lambda Pi Omega chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha measures the weeks before the holiday in labor, assembling toiletry kits for people without stable housing, volunteering in youth programs to combat hunger and foster leadership, and filling community resource gaps. The chapter will spend the holiday at Third New Hope Baptist Church assembling 1,908 toiletry bags for Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries.
Read at Advocate.com
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