More than 140 gather in SLO to celebrate, honor Dr. Martin Luther King’s legacy
More than 140 people gathered at Unitarian Universalist Church in San Luis Obispo to celebrate the legacy of late civil rights activist Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
On the walls inside the dining hall, people could hang sticky notes about what a particular King quote meant to them. People could sit with each other at various tables, share meals and connect as a community.
NAACP San Luis Obispo president Tobin Johnson told The Tribune he wanted to put on an inclusive event that could educate the community about King’s philosophies.
“When I was designing the program, it came from everything going on in the Middle East as well as in the country,” Johnson said. “I wanted to put an event on that was centered around non-violence. Dr. King’s whole philosophy and his whole upbringing was all about the nonviolent resistance, and that’s what this event is.”
He said he wanted the event to focus on how King came into his beliefs and the early days of his activism, and called the event “Pilgrimage to Freedom.” It was inspired by King’s memoir of the Montgomery bus boycott, Stride to Freedom. Rosa Park’s arrest on Dec. 4, 1955, sparked the yearlong protest of racial segregation on public transit in Montgomery, Alabama.
“What we’re doing is capturing the early days when he really was finding out what what his nonviolent resistance looked like using Ghandian methods and using Karl Marx as reference tools,” Johnson said.
San Luis Obispo Mayor Erica Stewart gave the keynote address at the event, which also included musical numbers and other speakers.
Johnson said his mission is always to advocate, educate and disseminate information that can help the community grow into a better place.
“These are all friends and family that have a common goal of making our community different and making it better,” Johnson said. “It was significant, seeing all these people here. (It) was just a beautiful thing. I love when our community shows up for each other.”
He added that King’s words are still just as relevant today as they were before he was assassinated at age 30. He added that King’s youth and his legacy shows how important it is to be engaged as a young person.
“We still have a big fight ahead of us, and we have to ensure that they are engaged and fully aware,” Johnson said. “As we pass that baton off to them, they have to know what they’re doing this for and where all these rights and and privileges that we have now came from.”
The event was also sponsored by Bend the Arc, Congregation Beth David, Diversity Coalition SLO County, Jewish Community Center Federation of SLO, People of Faith for Justice, Planned Parenthood Central Coast and Unitarian Universalists SLO.
