By Michelle Betton
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, January 11, 2007; T01
Joan Christian and some of her fellow Bowie residents were sitting around talking one day last year about Martin Luther King Jr. when they came up with an idea.
Let's organize an annual event to celebrate King's birthday, they said.
"There is so much about him that children are not taught in school," said Christian, 73, a resident of Bowie for the past 10 years.
Christian was part of a task force set up to examine race relations in the city. The task force led to the creation of the city's Diversity Committee, which for years has sponsored art, poetry and essay contests for students in kindergarten through grade 12. The contests have been a wonderful tribute to King, said Christian, but she wanted to expand on them by organizing a celebration in which all residents, young and old, could participate.
Christian and her friends formed the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Committee of Bowie. Beginning Saturday, the committee will host a weekend of song, dance and retrospection.
The celebration will be especially poignant for Christian, who attended King's funeral in Atlanta nearly 39 years ago. She went with a friend who was a relative of the King family.
"I really hope that it would mean a coming together of the various groups in Bowie," Christian said of the celebration.
Since March, Christian and her friends have been organizing the three-day celebration for King, who would have turned 78 on Jan. 15. To help organize the event, Christian, a columnist for the Bowie Blade, contacted residents she had met at City Hall and at County Council meetings, along with members of the Bowie Homeowners' Association. The event is being funded through donations.
Saturday will feature an intergenerational workshop to study how residents remember King and his work. Also, Pin Points Theatre, a District-based group, will perform a show depicting what might have happened at a meeting of King and Malcolm X. A step show by Eleanor Roosevelt High School students and a musical chronology of the civil rights movement will also be featured. Peggy Magee, clerk of the Circuit Court, will be the keynote speaker.
Sunday will begin with a fellowship hour followed by a recital by children from the Mitchellville School of Music. County Council member Ingrid M. Turner (D) will lead a roundtable discussion. The three-day celebration will conclude with an ecumenical service Monday. Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-Md.) is the day's keynote speaker.
Meanwhile, Bowie's Diversity Committee will have its celebration, "Fulfilling the Dream," and announce the winners of the art, poetry and essay contests Tuesday. Una Cooper, communications coordinator for the city of Bowie, said the Diversity Committee and the new commemorative committee are working together.
"We're very supportive of what the community group is doing," Cooper said.
Denise McKenney, 54, who will lead the intergenerational workshop Saturday, has lived in Bowie for 14 years. She will use the same program for the workshop that she uses in her job as a commissioner for the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.
McKenney hopes to use her workshop to examine the way people of different ages view King, particularly baby boomers who can recall his life's work and children who know the civil rights leader primarily through history books.
"None of them has ever known firsthand any of the impact of the good that he did," McKenney said of the younger generations. "For us to do nothing on such an important day, we would be remiss."
Christian said the commemorative committee is seeking nonprofit status in hopes of continuing King's work in Bowie through charitable causes such as helping those in need.
The committee will ask for donations Saturday and Sunday, and proceeds will go to the Bowie Food Pantry, which operates out of Christian Community Presbyterian Church. The nonprofit status also would enable businesses and organizations to make donations without having to pay taxes on them.
"It's been tough for us to get donations from restaurants when there is no tax deduction," Christian said.
Though Christian and her friends aim to establish a tradition in Bowie, the idea of celebrating King is not new to the city. Christian, a former training consultant for the New Jersey Education Association, began pushing for a celebration years ago in an article she wrote about King.
"My article in the Bowie Blade got the ball rolling," she said, adding that the city-sponsored art, poetry and essay contests were launched after that piece.
When word spread last year that plans were underway to establish an annual King celebration, Christian said a number of people, many of them Bowie residents, offered their help. She said teachers, lawyers, heads of corporations and a rabbi were among the volunteers. "We welcome everybody, as he [King] did," Christian said.
Though King's birthday is seen by some as a holiday for African Americans, McKenney said the three-day celebration will have something for everyone.
Christian, too, stressed that King fought not just for African Americans but for all people regardless of their race or economic status.
"He was concerned about all people," Christian said. "We seem to be separated into our comfortable communities. The more we learn about this great man, it will bring the people of Bowie together. That, to me, was what King was all about."
For more information about the Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Committee of Bowie's three-day celebration, call 240-274-5069.
