Join us at the Community Center to honor Martin Luther King, January 15th at 9:00am.

Martin Luther King Jr. dedicated his life to the nonviolent struggle for civil rights in the United States. King’s leadership played a pivotal role in ending entrenched segregation for African Americans and to the creation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, considered a crowning achievement of the civil rights era. King was assassinated in 1968, but his words and legacy continue to resonate for all those seeking justice in the United States and around the world. As King said at the Washington National Cathedral on March 31, 1968, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”*1

In 1994, Congress passed the King Holiday and Service Act in honor of Dr. King’s legacy. This transformed Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day into a day dedicated to volunteer service. The MLK Day of Service is the only federal holiday that is also designated by Congress as a National Day of Service – a “day on, not a day off.”

In honor of this, the Town will host a volunteer trash pickup from 9:00am – 10:30am in various locations around Weaverville. The Community Center will also be open from 9:00am – 1:00pm, and we invite you to visit the Green Book Project Exhibit, which is on loan from the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources. This is a traveling exhibit that was created to highlight the experiences of African American travelers during the Jim Crow era in North Carolina, the exhibit features oral histories, photographs, and Green Books.

*1 https://www.history.com/mlk