Republic file photo The Rev. Jane Sims speaks at a racial reconciliation rally at Columbus City Hall.
The annual Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Breakfast will be held in person at 7:30 a.m. Jan. 17 at The Commons, according to organizers.
Last year’s gathering was held virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, organizers are limiting the size of the crowd from a normal eight diners per table to five people per table to allow for social distancing. The event remains free to the public.
In order to meet the social distancing requirement, free tickets are required this year for attendance on a first-come, first-served basis. They will be available soon from members of the local African American Pastors Alliance.
Keynote speaker will be the Rev. Jane Sims, co-pastor of Calvary Community Church in downtown Columbus. In the past, she has spoken at rallies and at the Rev. Martin Luther King Scholarship service at Calvary.
Columbus Mayor Jim Lienhoop and Jim Roberts, superintendent of Bartholomew Consolidated School Corp., also will speak.
The breakfast in recent years has attracted more than 320 people, including city and county representatives, along with leaders in education, law enforcement, faith circles, civil rights, nonprofits, and more. It generally includes music in the form of a choir or soloists, plus a range of community-oriented awards and student scholarships.
This year, six college-bound high school seniors will be honored with $1,000 scholarships. For recipients who plan to attend locally at Ivy Tech Community College or IUPUC, these will be increased up to $2,500.
That money comes from event donations and sponsorships, which are still being accepted.
Just before she spoke few years at Calvary, Sims called the general state of race relations disappointing after what she saw as years of apparent progress.
“We are at a place where things are almost toxic,” Sims said. “The level of racial tension reminds me of and brings flashbacks of the civil rights movement.”
When Sims spoke at a rally on the steps of Columbus City Hall last year, she called the current times “an unprecedented season of chaos unlike anything we have ever experienced …particularly for those of us of African American descent and communities of color. It is an era of profound sorrow and terror as we continue to witness a troublesome escalations of killings of unarmed Black men and women.”
