Martin Luther King Jr. holiday events on tap

ALBANY – More than 40 years ago a group of Procter & Gamble employees decided to hold a celebration of the life of Martin Luther King Jr. 

The result was a small gathering around a table at a Shoney’s restaurant in east Albany in 1980, six years before the first celebration of the MLK federal holiday and 20 years before all 50 states recognized it as a state holiday.  

On Monday, the H.E.A.R.T. (Hands Extended Across Reaching Together) Organization will host its 46th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Program and Breakfast, but the size of the event has grown somewhat, bringing out more than 1,000 attendees some years and on one occasion about 1,800.

“It started with nine in the planning and probably 15 people were there,” H.E.A.R.T. Organization President and CEO Anne Johnson said. “It started with a small group that had been talking. We’ve been about unity and call to action and everybody having equal opportunity, the same things Dr. King talked about, (addressing) poverty, the jobs, education.”

After a few years, as attendance picked up, the event was moved to Albany State University and later to an even larger venue. For the last several years H.E.A.R.T. has held the annual celebration at Mt. Zion Baptist Church at 901 Westover Blvd., and that will be the case on Monday, with the breakfast starting at 7:30 a.m.

There is no charge to attend and no RSVP required, but the occasion is one at which many dig into their pockets to make donations to H.E.A.R.T.’s two signature causes: an annual athletic shoe giveaway to disadvantaged children and the Girls Leading Others Wisely (G.L.O.W.) mentoring program for girls ages 9 to 16.. The King event has turned into the largest fund raiser for the group.

As has been the case since its inception, P&G is the event sponsor. In 1995, the company received a national award from The King Center in Atlanta, Johnson said. 

“This year we’re doing a call to action with the theme ‘The Dream in Action,’” she said. “Each one of us has a gift; each one of us has to be great because Dr. King said we can all be great. We’re putting it out there that everybody can serve. You can sing. If you can’t sing, you can hear and learn from the keynote speaker. A lot of people don’t know that they can help unless somebody tells them and shows them how.”

As always, there will be a large choir of around 100 to sing for the guests, and the speaker will be E. Dewey Smith, senior pastor/teacher at The House of Hope in Atlanta, The House of Hope Macon and The House of Hope WestPointe. Smith’s ministry includes involvement in prison reform, re-entry programs, mental health and human services, and in 2013 he launched Tabitha’s House, which assists victims of human trafficking.

In downtown Albany on Monday the annual Dream Walk will be held for the 13th year. The walk starts at Shiloh Baptist Church, 325 Whitney Ave., where the program starts at 10 a.m. and the walk is scheduled to start at noon. 

The church was the site of mass meetings during the Albany Movement, and the walk traces the steps of those who marched from that location to the former Albany jail that was located near where the Albany-Dougherty Government Center sits today.

The speaker will be J.T. Johnson, who was involved in a famous pool jump-in at a whites-only pool at a motel during which a white man poured acid in the water to drive out the black and white protesters. 

“He was also part of the great pool jump-in in Albany, when a group of black boys jumped in the pool at Tift Park,” said Frank Wilson, one of the organizers of the event. 

The pre-walk program will also include musical numbers, including the Freedom Singers.

“We will have a conversation about the walk and why we continue the walk,” Wilson said. “It’s important to remember because of the issues that caused King to walk, that caused protestors to walk. It’s almost a remembrance of the ‘60s because of some of the things that are being allowed by this current administration, this current Congress and this Supreme Court.”

Wilson pointed to remarks made recently by President Trump in which the president said that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 led to white people being “very badly treated,” a serious misrepresentation of the legislation. 

“We need to remember this history,” Wilson said. “It’s still very relevant. There are some that would have us return to the ‘50s and ‘60s.”

Several other groups will be walking on Monday, but their strolls will include carrying garbage bags to pick up litter in neighborhoods in east and south Albany.

The first of the walks will have participants gather at East International Baseball Park, located at 2119 Pearce Ave., at 9 a.m. for a three-hour cleanup effort.

A second walk in east Albany begins at noon at Dougherty High School and is scheduled to last for two hours.

“(City Commissioner) Jon (Howard) and I started this 15, 16 years ago when I first got on the School Board,” Velvet Poole said.

There is an area behind the school where individuals toss litter, she said, and it has been a recurring problem. Within days of a cleanup, the area is once again littered, Poole said.

A group of residents joined Howard and Poole this week to make a plea for an end to litter at the high school and throughout the city and county.

“We just need people to stop putting their garbage out at that corner,” Poole said. “We need them to put it in the nearest trash can. It’s everybody’s responsibility.”

Some of the speakers pointed to the negative impact that litter has in terms of unsightliness and the potential economic impact from businesses and industries not wanting to locate in a community where residents are not concerned about its cleanliness.

“This certainly is a problem,” Keep Albany-Dougherty Beautiful Executive Director Jwana Washington said. “We want to make sure we educate the community.”

The third cleanup event is scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. at the MLK Park and Walking Track at 2235 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. It is being sponsored by the South Albany Litter Team and Georgia Patriots Youth Sports.

Jordan Boyd, a senior political science student at Albany State University, said he thinks students will get onboard the anti-litter effort.

“Although we are visiting from our hometowns, we consider Albany our hometown while we’re here,” he said. “I would say there’s no reason not to have the students of ASU be part of the MLK pick-up. Let’s keep our home for the next four years clean.”

At the 2026 MLK Dinner at Albany State, an event hosted by the Albany Area Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, the speaker will be Amazon executive Terreta Rodgers. Rodgers leads the company’s community affairs strategy across Georgia.

“Rodgers brings more than 20 years of experience in public service, government affairs and corporate engagement,” according to the chamber. “Her remarks will focus on leadership, economic opportunity and the importance of strong community partnerships.

“The annual MLK Dinner brings together business, civic and community leaders from across southwest Georgia to reflect on Dr. King’s legacy and its relevance to leadership, opportunity and community engagement today.”

The dinner starts at 6 p.m. at the West Campus Student Center and will feature the awarding of two scholarships to the university and of a chamber-sponsored membership to a diverse small business.

At 10 a.m. on Monday the Phoebe Putney Health System will host a celebration of King’s life at Phoebe HealthWorks, 311 Third Ave. 

The event will include a special performance by the Saints of God House of Worship Choir and feature speaker the Rev. Joseph Howard of Turning Point Church. 

A food distribution will be held from 1 p.m.-3 p.m. on Monday at the Phoebe North Campus, located at 2000 Palmyra Road.