The fourth annual Southern Maryland Martin Luther King, Jr. Prayer Breakfast will be held on Monday, Jan. 21, at St. Mary’s College of Maryland.
The ceremony comes during the 40th anniversary year of King’s death.
Last year’s breakfast was attended by more than 300 people, including leaders from the Southern Maryland community who honored Dr. King’s legacy and continue to work towards improving race relations.
Breakfast service begins at 7:30 a.m. in the Great Room at the college’s Campus Center building, with a program planned for 9-10:30 a.m.
The service will feature guest speakers Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy and Herbert Jordan III.
The service will also feature musical performances by St. Peter Claver Gospel Choir and the St. Mary’s College Gospel Choir. Pastor John W. Briscoe, from Restoration Free Gospel Church, Lexington Park, Maryland, will deliver the invocation.
Admission is $7 and includes a full breakfast. The event is sponsored by SMCM and the St. Mary’s County Human Relations Commission. Early arrival is recommended as space is limited, but advanced registration is not required. For more information contact Robin Kendall at (240) 895-4191.
After attending Yale University Divinity School, Walter E. Fauntroy became an important figure in the Civil Rights Movement. He was chosen by Martin Luther King, Jr. to be the director of the Washington bureau of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and acted as a liaison between the group and Capitol Hill. He served as the coordinator of the historic March on Washington of 1963, coordinator of the Selma to Montgomery march of 1965 and the Meridith Mississippi freedom march of 1966. He was elected to Congress as delegate for Washington, D.C., in 1971 and continued to serve in that capacity until 1991. During that time he helped to found the Congressional Black Caucus and served as chairman from 1981-1983. He continues to work as pastor for New Bethel Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.
Herbert Jordan, III was the assistant secretary of the governor in Maryland’s Office of Minority Affairs (OMA). OMA is the principal advocate for the more than 400,000 small, minority, and women-owned businesses in Maryland. During his tenure, he played a key leadership role in the successful reengineering of the state’s small and minority business programs. Jordan has over 15 years experience in management, business development, information technology, and business process improvement. Prior to his government service, he worked for GE, USF&G, and Aon Consulting. Jordan earned a B.S. in Information Systems Management from the University of Maryland.