King Day event in Albany rescheduled due to storm recovery efforts
Civic Center used as shelter, leads to rescheduling of King Day Celebration event
By Jon Gosa
ALBANY — The 2017 King Day Celebration event scheduled for Jan. 16 at the Albany Civic Center has been postponed and will be rescheduled due to storm recovery efforts, according to committee chairman Ken Hodges.
“We are going to postpone the event and try to shoot for a day in February or March,” said Hodges. “The reasons are clearly because of the catastrophe that we had here in Albany. We literally have people living at the Civic Center now in shelters, and while they are projected to be out by Monday, it’s not confirmed that they will. Also, if there is still a need, they won’t be. We certainly don’t want to displace anyone, and we don’t want to tap into the resources of any other entities that are providing services for disaster victims.”
According to Hodges, the King Day Celebration committee met on Tuesday and unanimously agreed to push the event back.
“We all thought it was a good idea to put it off,” Hodges said. “Congressman Sanford Bishop is supposed to be the keynote speaker this year, and I have already contacted his office about a tentative date. But until we have that confirmed, I don’t want to say when it is. We are shooting for a Monday in February or March.”
Bishop, who is serving his 12th term in in the U.S. House of Representatives, representing Georgia’s Second Congressional District, which covers 29 middle and Southwest Georgia counties, said he remains excited about participating in the event.
“I am excited and humbled to be speaking at this year’s annual King Day Celebration in Albany,” Bishop said. “This event serves as a moment of reflection on Dr. King’s tireless work to advance the rights of all Americans. Throughout his years in the public eye, Dr. King challenged every American to stand up for the things that are good and great about our country, to be ready, always, to defend her against those who would trample on the bedrock principles of freedom and justice for all, whether threatened from abroad or at home.”
Bishop, like King, was a student at Morehouse College where the two met.
“As a student at Morehouse, I was greatly influenced by (King’s) faith-oriented philosophy, which still guides me today,” said the congressman. “I remember meeting him on the Morehouse campus, where he was a student himself a number of years before me and where he often returned. I sang at his funeral as a member of the Morehouse Glee Club, an experience that will always remain vivid in my memory.”
According to Hodges, a new date for the celebration will soon be announced, and any tickets or tables already sold will be honored.
“If people already have tickets or tables,” said Hodges, “of course those will be honored on the new date when we have the event.”
Related Articles
Small actions can help save big on utility bills
The high temperatures of July and August can bring scorching utility bills as air conditioners hum to keep houses cool. Albany Utilities Residential Conservation Auditor Willie Jackson offered some tips on making summer cooling bills more manageable.
Bigger budget will mean improvements at Dougherty County’s landfill
“It’s certainly an opportunity where we can grow and make this very beneficial for years to the community. It’s a service that we provide for the community and I want to prolong that resource for the community. It’s not just fill it up and close it.”
Putting on the Ritz: The rise, fall and renewal of Albany’s Harlem District
On July 7, the Albany City Commission unanimously approved final construction drawings for a comprehensive restoration of the Ritz Theatre and Cultural Center, clearing the way for the project to move into competitive bidding after years of planning and preservation efforts. The decision marks the latest chapter in a decades-long effort to preserve one of Southwest Georgia’s most significant African American landmarks.
