In advance of Martin Luther King Day next week, there will be a free event in Wausau on Friday, Jan. 16 to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream that people of every race and culture will come together in peace, equality and justice. The celebration, which is focused on “honoring the past, still dreaming for the future,” will be held at the Marathon Park East Gate Hall — where King delivered a speech in 1967 — from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
“When we go to that venue you can almost feel the spirit and soul of Martin Luther King in the venue,” said Ron Alexander, co-host of the event.
The celebration — which is supported by North Central Area Congregations Organized to Make an Impact (NAOMI), Behavioral Health Clinic, the Women’s Community and other local groups — will feature food from five different cultures, activity tables for kids and a variety of cultural dancers. Jane Graham Jennings, executive director of the Women’s Community, said it’s a great event for kids because the activities and civic participation lend understanding to different perspectives and backgrounds.
Following opening remarks, there will be poems read and written by local students and a keynote address by Dane County Circuit Court Judge Rev. Everett Mitchell.
“He’ll talk about the dreams of MLK and what that means for us in our current day and status, how we can come together to support unity,” Jennings said. “It’s important for people to understand what Martin Luther King was trying to accomplish. What he meant through his speeches. What it meant when someone who is talking about freedom is assassinated.”
Jennings said the Women’s Community has been involved with the event for years because King’s vision aligns with the organization’s mission.
“We absolutely believe in equity and inclusion and that everybody should be safe and we shouldn’t have any people in our community that feel unwelcome or targeted,” she said.
Dr. King had a direct impact on the Wausau area, visiting the city in May 1967 to speak at the University of Wisconsin—Marathon County (now UW—Stevens Point at Wausau), less than a year before his assassination in Memphis.
According to the Marathon County Historical Society, King delivered his speech in the Youth Administration Building at Marathon Park, where he announced that racial segregation was “dead as a doornail and the only thing uncertain about it is how costly, some of our friends like former-Governor Wallace and others will make the funeral.” While Wausau may seem like a relatively remote destination for a historical figure as important as King, there was great purpose in his visit: to educate people of everywhere of the realities and necessity of the work he was engaged in, and why it was necessary to support national efforts to address racial inequality even after the impending end of segregation.
For individuals who cannot come to the event but are still looking for a meaningful way to observe King’s legacy, Jennings suggests looking toward service.
“One of the things Martin Luther King talked a lot about was service,” she said. “People could take that day and figure out a way to give service to your community — help your neighbor shovel their sidewalks, go grocery shopping for someone who can’t get out of their house, volunteer at a place you believe in, see what’s happening at your churches and how you can follow up and provide service to your community. That really was his message.”
Organizers request that individuals register prior to event to help gauge capacity.
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