Dr. King Unity Day When: January 21, 2019

Header: MLK Club Keynote Speaker Ivy Bailey awarded appreciation gifts, including a Stay Woke sweatshirt donated by Anita Dortch. [PHOTOS: COURTESY]

The Martin Luther King Club of Fort Wayne hosted the 34th Annual Unity Day celebration, “Dr. King’s Dream: A Community Endeavor” at the Grand Wayne Center.  Ivy Bailey, the president of the Detroit (Michigan) Federation of Teachers, served as the event’s keynote speaker.  “Her presentation on public education versus charter schools was right on time, and her experiences and expertise were unquestionable,” said MLK Club President Bennie Edwards. 

This year’s bevy of community service awardees include: entrepreneurs Thomas Brownlee and David Carmichael, and community activists Larry Gist and Dr. Delois McKinley-Eldridge.  New Haven High School senior, Sherdell Baker, featured in the Fort Wayne Ink Spot’s September 2018 all-education issue, was awarded the 2019 MLK Club Gly R. Gleason Memorial Scholarship, along with Snider High School’s Jurnee’-Len Davis and Grace McCormick, and North Side High School’s Trinity Mitchell.

Below: NAACP president Larry Gist awarded a community award for outstanding service, by MLK Club President Bennie Edwards and Vice-President Sheryl Edwards.