Freedom rider and activist Betty Daniels Rosemond to keynote NURFC’s King Legacy Awards

Betty Daniels Rosemond will keynote the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center’s 2020 King Legacy Awards Breakfast on Monday, January 20.

The breakfast is NURFC’s annual celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and those carrying on his legacy of inclusive freedom through the King Legacy Youth Leadership Program. The 2020 King Legacy Awards Breakfast is supported by Presenting Freedom sponsor Kroger and Dream sponsor Path Forward.

The King Legacy Awards Breakfast recognizes the participants of the King Legacy Youth Leadership Program and will award three students for their work. The students will have an opportunity during the program to take the stage and share their presentation on Dr. King’s legacy today. Keynote speaker Betty Daniels Rosemond will also share her experiences with the audience.

Rosemond grew up in New Orleans and, once she came of age, joined CORE – the Congress of Racial Equality, one of the leading civil rights activist organizations. She was a freedom rider in the 1960s and risked her life advocating and agitating for racial equality in the segregated south.

“Rosemond’s life is one of courage, clarity and action,” says Woody Keown, Jr., president of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. “We are honored to hear and share her story with this current generation of social activists as we hope to act with the same grace and conviction she has demonstrated in the fight for inclusive freedom here and around the globe.”

NURFC will celebrate Dr. King’s legacy with a full day of programming and free admission from Noon to 5 p.m.

Additionally, guests are invited to join in the 45th annual MLK Coalition March, which will begin outside NURFC at 10:30 a.m. and proceed to Fountain Square for an interfaith prayer service. From Fountain Square, the march will continue to Music Hall. Prior to the march, from 9:30-10:30 a.m., Kroger will offer a free warming station inside NURFC’s North Star Café, offering hot drinks and snacks to marchers. Kroger will also have corporate recruiters available.

“Dr. King’s example is needed now as desperately as it was in the 1950s and 60s,” says Keown. “We hope that through continued activism and education we can continue to chase Dr. King’s dream and, when successful, be a beacon of hope to those struggling for their own freedom all over the world.”

NURFC will also be screening True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality, a film about Alabama public interest attorney Bryan Stevenson who, for three decades, has worked to eradicate racial discrimination in the criminal justice system.