Culver City is all set to host its 11th annual Martin Luther King Celebration Jan. 16 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
The event, which will be held at the Culver City Senior Center, will focus on this year’s theme of Love in honor of the man who used love and civil disobedience to fight racial discrimination and unfair labor practices.
“I think that the significance [of the MLK celebration] is global in its importance,” said Culver City MLK Committee Chairman Wayne Slappy. “I’m a resident of Culver City. This year’s theme is Love. When people finally understand that love is more powerful than bombs. That love is more powerful than any violence. That love brings people together. That love enables you to communicate with one another so you won’t be strangers. That’s all Dr. King was trying to say to people. We have to learn to live together as brothers or we’ll perish as fools.”
One of the highlights of the celebration will be the appearance of Robert Farrell, one of the original Freedom Riders who rode transit buses in the segregated southern U.S. in the early 1960s to challenge the non-enforcement of Supreme Court rulings that made segregated public buses unconstitutional.
Farrell will be part of a panel discussion that will deviate from panel discussions in previous years. Previously, panel discussions focused on a particular aspect of King’s life or on the specific actions he took to fight segregation.
Culver City MLK Committee Member Daniel Lee, who will be one of the panel’s moderators, said that this year, the emphasis will be on fostering a more inclusive environment where ideas within the community can be shared.
“We wanted to have more of an interactive discussion,” Lee said. “Where it’s less about people telling us about the history of a specific aspect of something Dr. King did and more sort of having a community discussion in the hopes of building stronger community connections and having people get to know each other more.”
One other activity that is new for the annual celebration is a history project for the local youth at the Culver City Teen Center.
According to Lee, he and other members of the MLK committee met with local teens every Friday for six weeks to teach the kids various aspects of King that are not normally taught in school.
“Usually the kids know about “I have a dream” and that is usually where their knowledge ends,” Lee said. “So we have some discussions about other aspects of MLKs legacy such as the fact that he worked so often with unions and the fact that people weren’t really fans of him in a lot of ways and in other things he was involved in.”
Lee said one thing that surprised the teens was the history behind the King holiday. Lee recalled how legislative efforts to turn King’s birthday into a national holiday were boosted by the popularity of Stevie Wonder’s ode to Dr. King “Happy Birthday.”
“The kids were surprised by the fact that the MLK holiday didn’t start until the early 1980s,” Lee said. “A lot of kids thought it was something that happened immediately after his death.”
Slappy said that on average about 300 to 400 people attend the event every year and he expects even more to attend in coming years as he has noticed how the celebration just gets bigger each year.
Although the celebration is growing larger each year, Slappy says he can’t say the same for the event’s budget.
With a budget of just $5,000 from the city, Slappy said that they have to make every dollar count, which is not an easy task considering that half of the budget — $2,500 — has to be spent a banner stretching across Sepulveda Boulevard near Overland.
As a result, Slappy says they welcome donations, some of which come in the form of food from Costco and the local Ralphs market.
MLK Committee Member Tori Bailey, who has been involved with the MLK celebration for several years, said that she has gotten very positive responses from attendees. One thing she said contributes to such a positive experience is the annual film screening, where attendees are treated to a movie that highlights that year’s theme.
“Every now and then you’ll see something [in one of the films] and say, ‘wow, did that really happen?’” Bailey said.
This year’s film, “Dare Not Walk Alone,” fits in with the theme of Love as it shows how people can work together to achieve a greater good. The film tells the story of King’s involvement in the attempt to integrate swimming pools, hotels, and recreation centers in Florida.
“The story is one that people don’t typically associate with Dr. King,” Lee said. “When people talk about Dr. King’s assassination they talk less about the fact that he was there to support a sanitation worker’s strike and this is another story that’s similar to that, that people really don’t know very much about.”
Slappy said that the Culver City Martin Luther King Celebration will continue to grow in popularity and continue to evolve to accommodate both the increasing number of attendees and the changing needs of the community.
However, one thing that won’t change is King’s message and legacy that resonates to this day.
“Dr King’s legacy is that there is another way to solve the problems of the world besides violence,” Slappy said.
For more information on the Culver City Martin Luther King Celebration, go to www.culvercity.org or call (310) 253-6675.
