Six Legacy Award winners will be honored Jan. 20 at 8 a.m.
Please join us as the Martin Luther King, Jr. Coalition and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will host the 39th annual King Legacy Awards Breakfast Jan. 20 at the Freedom Center. Tickets are $35 and are available by calling 513-333-7706.
The event honors members of the greater Cincinnati community for their leadership in strengthening the diversity of our community and for promoting the vision and legacy of Dr. King. It has been held at the Freedom Center since 2005.
The breakfast begins at 8 a.m. Following the breakfast and awards ceremony, the Coalition will host a civil rights march that will leave the Freedom Center at 10:30 a.m. and head to Fountain Square for an inter-faith prayer service, with an invocation by our president, C.G. Newsome. Beginning at 11 a.m., the Freedom Center is open free to the public until 5 p.m., in celebration of Dr. King’s memory.
Courtis Fuller of WLWT will serve as emcee of the breakfast, which will celebrate three student and three adult honorees from the greater Cincinnati community.
King Legacy Youth Award Honorees are:
● Jasmine Askins, a senior at Dater High School, has persevered through deafness and family loss to be in the top quarter of her graduating class, while holding a part-time job at LaRosa’s Pizzeria and serving as president of her school’s National Honor Society chapter.
● Mark Boyce, a senior at North College Hill High School, who received the received the Samuel Massie Jr. Award in chemistry from the University of Cincinnati and the Carter G. Woodson Legacy Award from Berea College. He served as a youth docent at the Freedom Center and is involved in marching band, the varsity soccer team, DECA and Upward Bound.
● David Moody, a senior at Wyoming High School who is active on the Science Olympiad, mock trial and varsity lacrosse teams while maintaining a 4.4 GPA. He interned at G.E. Aviation and plans to major in engineering when he attends college in the fall.
King Legacy Award Honorees are:
● Bleuzette Marshall, Ph.D., who is interim chief diversity officer at the University of Cincinnati, where she is leading implementation of the university’s five-year diversity plan and building strategic partnerships in the community. She also is treasurer of the Cincinnati chapter of The Links, Inc. and serves on the board of the Cincinnati Recreation Foundation and Project ArtReach. She is a triple-alumna of the University of Cincinnati.
● Francie G. Pepper, a fourth-generation Cincinnatian and life-long community volunteer benefiting women’s and children’s causes, including serving roles with the YWCA of Greater Cincinnati, Junior League of Cincinnati, Foundation of Planned Parenthood of Southern Ohio and Northern Kentucky, Cincinnati Youth Collaborative and Smith College Alumnae, among others. She has been awarded a Women of the Year Award from the Cincinnati Enquirer, received the YWCA Racial Justice Award (along with John E. Pepper and, the Urban League Glorifying the Lions Award. She is a graduate of Smith College.
● David A. Singleton is the executive director of the Ohio Justice & Policy Center, which provides free legal representation to prisoners and ex-offenders to help them become productive members of the community. Additionally, he is an assistant professor at Northern Kentucky University’s Salmon P. Chase College of Law. Singleton graduated from Duke University and Harvard Law School.
Tickets for the breakfast are $35 and can be purchased by calling 513-333-7706. Sponsors for this year’s event are Alpha & Omega Arts, ArtsWave, Bethune/Wright Assembly, Cincinnati Human Relations Commission, Community Action Agency, The Kroger Co., Macy’s, Martin Luther King Coalition, St. Anthony, St. Monica-St. George Parish, Summit Country Day School, Toyota, TriHealth, University of Cincinnati, Western & Southern Financial Group and Xavier University.