The Columbus Bartholomew County Area Branch of the NAACP and the African American Pastors Alliance are organizing a town hall meeting on Martin Luther King Day on the theme “Defeating Hate in a Welcoming Community.”
The free, public panel discussion gathering — one aimed to encourage people to mix more often outside their normal group of friends and associates — is scheduled at 6 p.m. Jan. 21 at the Columbus Learning Center, 4555 Central Ave.
The pastors alliance also is organizing the annual Martin Luther King Day Community Breakfast at 7:30 a.m. the same day. That event regularly attracts more than 300 people.
Columbus native Olisa Humes, the just-elected president of the local NAACP, brought the idea to the pastors alliance. The past couple of years, Black Lives Matter of Columbus organized well-attended evening public sessions of the national Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. But that group recently disbanded.
“When I was younger as a student here, I can remember attending programs all day (of the holiday),” Humes said.
For more on this story, see Friday’s Republic.
