Among those events was a student-oriented MLK Day gathering at Middletown’s Atrium Medical Center that included inspirational speeches by youth and teens of all races.
For two decades the West Chester and Liberty Township “Live The Dream” event has drawn increasing crowds. The annual March For Unity starts at the clock tower at The Square @ Union Centre near the Interstate 75 interchange.
After a few words from speakers - the march that drew more than 150 - circled around the MidPointe Library to Lakota West High School, where participants enjoyed music and an awards program followed by a free luncheon.
“We are King’s dream and that is why we walk today,” African-American and Liberty Township resident Tina Cartwright told the marchers before they set on their cold, quarter-mile trek to the high school.
“And the dream lives on,” she said to cheers.
Later, inside Lakota West’s auditorium Destini Robinson, a black school parent whose daughter was among those honored at the event, said so many marchers braving below-zero chill factor illustrated the community’s commitment to racial diversity.
“It’s an amazing turnout for it to be so cold outside and there are so many people here,” said Robinson of the more than 300 inside the school auditorium.
“It’s a monumental day and a time of unity. It means a lot … for people of all races to be here today. You couldn’t have asked for a better way to celebrate Martin Luther King’s day,” she said.
Lakota Schools, which encompass both West Chester and Liberty townships, have seen its African-American student population soar since the local MLK Day event first started in 1999.
Black students now comprise more than 12 percent of the district’s 16,500 students.
Joe Hinson, president and CEO of the West Chester/Liberty Chamber Alliance, said expanding diversity is one of many positive signs of the area’s healthy growth.
“To be able to have a very transient area come together for 20 years says a lot,” said Hinson, who was among the presenters at the event. “Not only are we celebrating Martin Luther King Day for our townships but for the entire region.”
In Northern Butler County, Charis Herndon was among the students who took part in Middletown’s Atrium Medical Center’s MLK celebration.
More than 120 came to the center’s community room to hear student speakers recite their speeches on what civil rights leader’s heroic work means to them.
“Martin Luther King Jr. Day means to me to continue to evolve, continue to follow your dream and to do what is right and to love others,” said Herndon, who is a senior at Butler Tech.
“He represented doing what is right. I’m so glad the hospital put on this event,” she said.
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