Finding a speaker for this year’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Candlelight March and Memorial Service was easy for the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance. The organizers of the annual event looked from within.

The Rev. William C. Brown, pastor of Fifth Street Missionary Baptist Church and New Vision Missionary Baptist Church in DeKalb, will be keynote speaker for Sunday’s program at First Union Missionary Baptist Church.

“Rev. Brown has been a part of this community for more than 20 years, so he has witnessed first-hand the changes that have taken place here as far as race relations, said the Rev. Ecclesiastes Goodwin, public relations director for the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Planning Committee.

And like King, Brown has been actively involved in community and civic work. In 1984, he became the first African American to serve on the Lauderdale County Board of Supervisors. Brown is a Life Member of the NAACP. He also serves the First New Hope District Congress of Christian Education and is past president of the East Mississippi Baptist State Convention.

The celebration will kickoff with a candlelight vigil beginning at 6 p.m. The walk will begin at the Old Baptist Seminary on 16th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Drive (31st Avenue) and will culminate at First Union for the memorial service.

“Keeping the Dream Alive” is the theme for the program, which, in addition to Brown’s remarks, will include music by the Fifth Street Missionary Baptist Church Choir and excerpts from King’s “I Have a Dream” speech presented by the Rev. Gerald Hudson, pastor of Newell Chapel Central Methodist Episcopal Church.

“This is a program for everyone in the community, not only the black community,” Goodwin said. “Dr. King talked about breaking down racial barriers and people living together in harmony. This is one way we are keeping that dream alive.”

A special offering will be collected and proceeds will be used to help the community’s needy, Goodwin said.

Formed more than 20 years ago, the Ministerial Alliance is a membership of more than 20 local pastors — ages 24 to 80-plus — representing various denominations, including Baptist (missionary and primitive), Nazarene, Methodist (African Methodist Episcopal, Zion and United Methodist Episcopal).

The annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Service is one of the alliance’s main events of the year.

“It’s our way of helping to keep Dr. King’s dream alive,” Goodwin said. “But we don’t want the community to just remember the dream. We also want everyone to continue to pursue the dream.”

In addition to the celebration service, the alliance is also a community support system.

“We continue to provide assistance to those who were affected by Hurricane Katrina,” Goodwin said.

During the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays, the alliance provided meals for more than 20 families and a Christmas party for more than 200 children from the local housing authority, providing fruit baskets and toys.

MARCH PLANS

The march will begin at 6 p.m. at the Baptist Seminary, located on the corner of 15th Street and Martin Luther King Memorial Drive, and will proceed to First Union Baptist Church, 610 38th Ave. A memorial service will begin at 7 p.m. Keynote speaker is The Rev. William C. Brown, pastor of Fifth Street Missionary Baptist Church and New Vision Missionary Baptist Church in DeKalb.