The 38th Annual MLK Leadership Breakfast

The 38th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Awards Breakfast featured keynote speaker Dr. Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., Princeton University Professor of African American Studies and MSNBC contributor on Jan. 15. | Photos courtesy of Kelley Collier

BY FRANK DROUZAS | Staff Writer

ST. PETERSBURG – The St. Petersburg Metropolitan Section of the National Council of Negro Women (SPMS-NCNW) held its 38th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Awards Breakfast on Monday, Jan. 15, at the historic Coliseum, with this year’s theme being “The Character and Legacy of a Community: Where Do You Stand?”

Erica Riggins

St. Pete’s Public Information Officer and mistress of ceremony Erica Riggins referenced one of King’s speeches, where the civil rights leader said African Americans lacked “psychological freedom.”

Mayor Ken Welch

“When I think about the inequities in the criminal justice system, the school-to-prison pipeline, the fact that Black and Hispanic children account for one-fourth of the foster care system,” she said, “we still have a great need for psychological freedom, that firm sense of self-esteem.”

Mayor Ken Welch welcomed the more than 900 attendees, paraphrasing Dr. King in stating that civil rights and economic justice are co-equal components of the “dream,” adding that his administration will continue to focus on building economic opportunity through the city’s Business Enterprise Program, the work of the city’s new Chief Equity Officer Carl Lavender, the $500 million in targeted minority business participation and “thousands of career and job training opportunities” as a result of the development of the historic Gas Plant district.

“Standing together and looking forward,” he said, “we will continue to build inclusive progress for all of our city in the true spirit of Dr. King’s dream.”

The breakfast featured keynote speaker Dr. Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., Princeton University Professor of African American Studies, New York Times best-selling author and MSNBC contributor.

Glaude said each year, we celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King, but celebrations also allow us to look at who we currently are to assess how far we’ve come and need to go.

“This year’s celebration of Dr. King’s life and legacy occurs in the backdrop of a nation in crisis, exacerbated by an election season,” he said, adding that Americans are divided and those divisions “cut to the marrow of the bone.”

“Too often, we see each other as enemies, with politicians and partisans exploiting it all.”

Dr. Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., Princeton University Professor of African American Studies

Politicians are exploiting disagreements, and race shadows it all, Glaude stated, and amidst the great replacement theory and assaults on voting rights, “we still find ourselves fighting a civil war, the outcome of which has yet to be decided.”

“Racism cripples our imagination, deforms our moral sense and distorts our character,” affirmed Glaude. “We have developed exclusive rituals to evade it all, to put the ‘otherness’ of our past and present aside.”

Rural and urban areas, red and blue states, Republicans and Democrats are embroiled in a battle over what kind of a country we will be. The place of Black and Brown people in this country looms large in the question, Glaude said, adding there are places in the nation that are seeking to undermine the right to vote for some people through suppression and intimidation.

“The fact that America is quickly becoming a majority-minority nation has led some to conclude that if this place is to remain a white nation, democracy itself must be cast aside,” he asserted, explaining that we are at a crossroads as a country.

At a church conference Dr. King attended in 1962, the reverend defended his view on integration as something more than mere desegregation, Glaude said, adding that King felt the problem of race and color prejudice left the country bereft of a moral compass. King averred that even if desegregation were successful, Glaude explained, the relationship between human beings in this country would remain deeply problematic.

In quoting Dr. King, Glaude said, “desegregation was a negative formulation,” simply removing legal and social prohibitions, but integration is the “positive acceptance of desegregation and the welcome participation of Negroes into the total range of human activities.”

King posited that “laws that make segregation illegal may or may not attack the root of the evil,” for the human spirit cannot be legislated.

If there’s no fundamental transformation of society, Glaude attested, then those who bear the brunt of that society’s contradictions will find themselves navigating and negotiating again and again that hubris that threatens democracy itself.

More than 900 attendees packed into the historic Coliseum for NCNW’s 38th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Awards Breakfast on Monday.

Quoting Dr. King, Glaude said, “We do not have to look very far to see the pernicious effects of a desegregated society that is not integrated. It leads to physical proximity without spiritual affinity. It gives us a society where men are physically desegregated and spiritually segregated, where elbows are together, and hearts are apart … It leaves us with the stagnant equality of sameness rather than a constructive equality of oneness.”

On the evening of March 25, 1968, 10 days before he was killed, Dr. King spoke at the 68th annual convention of the Rabbinical Assembly. He called out America for what it is – a racist country.

“However difficult it is to hear, however shocking it is to hear, we’ve got to face the fact that America is a racist country. We have got to face the fact that racism still occupies the throne of our nation. I don’t think we will ultimately solve the problem of racial injustice until this is recognized…”

Twenty deserving graduating high school students received the Ralph Young Scholarship.

Fast forward to 2024, Glaude said America does not want to teach the facts of history in her classrooms or legislate policies to address longstanding inequalities. However, America prefers to rid itself of any commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion – it does not want to live up to the ethics of integration.

Glaude said a nation that continues to lie to itself will never truly know who and what it is.

“Unless we are honest with ourselves, tell the truth about who we are and what we have done – think about Tropicana Field – we will never solve the problem of racial injustice in this country,” Glaude exclaimed.

Five outstanding graduating high school students received the Guilford-Robinson Scholarship.

Since Dr. King’s assignation in 1968, Glaude said America has completely turned its back on what he died for, and looming forces are hellbent on turning back to the clock.

Dr. King made the act of assuming personal responsibility for alleviating social harm habitual, a quality Glaude urges us to adopt.

“Let’s celebrate [King] today by asking ourselves the hard question,” Glaude stated. ‘Would he be disappointed in me?’ Let’s celebrate by taking personal responsibility for a more just America … Let’s use this day as a clarion call to fight like hell for American democracy.”

Glaude encouraged everyone to stand in solidarity and fight to put the ideology of race to rest.

Pinellas County Urban League President and CEO Nikki Gaskin-Capehart (right) received the Leadership Award, while dynamic duo Kori and Twanna Monroe were presented with the Humanitarian Award.

“Stop thinking that racial justice is philanthropic enterprise! We don’t need your damn check! What we need is a country that affirms the capacity and ability for everyone. What we need is a democracy animated by love, and then maybe we can be the greatest country on the planet.”

Tempress “Tee” Solomon, president of the NCNW Florida State Coalition, noted that King made “an impactful impression and significant contribution to the freedom and the progress of our nation.”

Ethel Peeples-Robinson, SPMS-NCNW president, praised King as a man who stood and spoke up for truth and justice and urged everyone to keep his legacy alive by “standing on his strengths and principles of giving back to others.”

The morning continued with the awards presentation to community leaders who have made an extraordinary personal commitment to serve humanity. Pinellas County Urban League President and CEO Nikki Gaskin-Capehart received the Leadership Award, while dynamic duo Kori and Twanna Monroe were presented with the Humanitarian Award.

This year’s honorees are esteemed for their influence in the community and commitment to embodying the principles of Dr. King in advancing human betterment.

In addition, 25 deserving graduating high school students received the Ralph Young and Guilford-Robinson Scholarships.

The 38th annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Leadership Awards Breakfast was chaired by Rene Flowers and co-chaired by Lynn Harrell-Johnson.

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