{"id":90042,"date":"2026-01-18T10:35:28","date_gmt":"2026-01-18T10:35:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/90042\/"},"modified":"2026-01-18T10:35:28","modified_gmt":"2026-01-18T10:35:28","slug":"erie-honors-dr-kings-legacy-at-annual-celebration-dinner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/90042\/","title":{"rendered":"Erie honors Dr. King\u2019s legacy at annual celebration dinner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Saturday night was the 15th annual Dr. King Awards dinner, celebrating the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and serves as a time to reflect.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A few of the awards distributed included those for Social Justice, Advocacy and Commitment to Economic Excellence, and the Dr. King award, which was given to the former director of Erie\u2019s MLK Center, James Sherrod, posthumously.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Others recognized included Marchello Woodard and those who have been advocating for his cause.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a class=\"link \" href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\/news\/local-news\/erie-mlk-jr-center-mourns-the-loss-of-its-executive-director\/?ipid=promo-link-block1\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Erie MLK Jr. Center mourns the loss of its executive director;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\"> Erie MLK Jr. Center mourns the loss of its executive director <\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Marcus Atkinson, interim director for the Martin Luther King Center, said, \u201cIt is really a time to be reflective of the legacy of Dr. King. We\u2019ve done a lot of these dinners but this year is special for a lot of reasons. When you think about the words and actions of Dr. King, it applies now more than ever. When you look at the state of affairs in this country, other countries right now, it\u2019s obvious that we need more peace, more love, more justice, more unity in this country and others.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Prominent Civil Rights Attorney Ben Crump also spoke to those in attendance.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Atkinson said the high attendance at the dinner represented Erie\u2019s commitment to remembering Dr. King and striving to live by his teachings.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.yourerie.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com.;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \"> For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to WJET\/WFXP\/YourErie.com. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Saturday night was the 15th annual Dr. King Awards dinner, celebrating the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[44549,136,138,137,44550,21805],"class_list":{"0":"post-90042","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-dr-king","9":"tag-erie","10":"tag-erie-headlines","11":"tag-erie-news","12":"tag-interim-director","13":"tag-james-sherrod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90042","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}