Jacksonville city leaders, educators, students honor Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s legacy at 39th annual breakfast<\/a><\/p>\n\u201cThis is an opportunity to get out here and represent Martin Luther King today, and we are also giving away a scholarship to a deserving person who would like to attend Edward Waters University,\u201d said Ava Jacques with ALCAM Community Action Motivators.<\/p>\n
Friday, News4JAX joined the city and local organizations that kicked off the MLK celebration with the Dr. King annual breakfast.<\/p>\n
Randolph Hall, with the Dr. MLK Memorial Foundation and the MLK parade coordinator, said that when he thinks of this day, he is grateful because it serves as a reminder that there is power in unity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this day and age, I think we need more unity and more synergy between city leaders and civic leaders, community leaders, people in general. There is too much division in our country right now, and I don\u2019t believe in divides when it comes to status and position. We are all just one people,\u201d Hall said. \u201cWe are all Americans, and we all need each other. We need people in politics to speak to those who don\u2019t have a voice, and we need people who don\u2019t have a voice to use their voice for this country to live up to the power of its creed.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Hall, the meaning of Monday\u2019s holiday to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is personal.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of people lost their lives for us to have that day. A lot of people were beaten, bitten by dogs, (had their) homes and churches bombed. Some even paid the ultimate price for us to enjoy the freedom we all have,\u201d Hall said. \u201cI am grateful, personally grateful that they were willing to sacrifice for an idea of a better country for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Crowds packed downtown for last year\u2019s parade, and a similar turnout is expected Monday.<\/p>\n
Following the parade, Hall says, there will be a full day of events at James Weldon Johnson Park downtown, including a children\u2019s zone, arts and crafts and live entertainment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for everybody\u2026. everybody, the entire city, to come out and show a sense of respect and honor the sacrifices and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King,” Hall said.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 Hundreds of bundled-up onlookers gathered Monday morning to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116,118,117,58055,61251],"class_list":{"0":"post-123825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-jacksonville","9":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","10":"tag-jacksonville-news","11":"tag-martin-luther-king-jr","12":"tag-mlk-parade"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}