Freedom Rider to participate in Dayton MLK celebration

A visit from a civil rights Freedom Rider is among the highlights of the 2015 Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration in Dayton.

David Fankhauser will be the keynote speaker for the annual MLK Celebration Banquet, which will be held 6 p.m. on Jan. 19 at the Dayton Convention Center.

Fankhauser was one of the Freedom Riders who rode interstate buses into the segregated south of the United States in 1961 to challenge segregated interstate facilities. At the time, Fankhauser, a white male, was a student at Central State University, a historically black college in Wilberforce. He is now a biology and chemistry professor at the University of Cincinnatis Clermont College.

Sometimes people forget that in the civil rights movement there were not just black people. (Fankhausers) living proof that there were others involved with the movement, said Anthony Whitmore, president and general chairperson for the non-profit that is hosting Daytons 2015 Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration.

The theme for the celebration, which is hosted by MLK Dayton, Inc., is Lift Every Voice, according to Whitmore.

As we looked at what was happening not just in our city, but in Missouri and other places across the country, it looked as if people were still struggling to find a voice, Whitmore said. And that voice is for all people. Not some people. So, when it came that we wanted to find a theme that would be inclusive of all people, then Lift Every Voice seemed to be appropriate for that.

The nation will celebrate Kings legacy on Jan. 19. King was born Jan. 15, 1929, and died April 4, 1968, after being shot while standing on a balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. He was in the city to help sanitation workers who were protesting low wages and intolerable working conditions.

King, a pastor, husband and father of four children, would have turned 86 next month.

Daytons celebration of his legacy will begin with an Emancipation Proclamation program to be held 11 a.m. Jan. 1 at Mt. Calvary Missionary Bapt. Church, 3300 W. Third St.

Fankhausers banquet address will end the citys celebration.

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Freedom Rider to participate in Dayton MLK celebration