The City of Cathedral City Celebrates Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day
On Monday, January 19th, the City of Cathedral City will honor and celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. City offices will be closed in this observation. However, members of the City Council, city staff, and the community have an opportunity to participate in two activities honoring the civil rights leader’s birthday.
First, the Cathedral City Boys and Girls Club will host volunteers who can help spruce up the facility’s grounds for the children who rely on their services. This includes general lawn maintenance and landscaping. Volunteers can donate as much time as they like whether that is an hour or longer. The clean-up begins as early as 8:00 am and will continue until completion. The Club is located at 32141 Whispering Palms Trail in Cathedral City.
From 2 pm – 4 pm, the Cathedral City Public Arts Commission will host an Opening Reception celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King’s role in the civil rights movement and will recognize the contributions of photo journalist, Donald Cravens, whose published photos for Life magazine brought world-wide attention to racial injustice. Entitled, “Martin Luther King, Jr. & the Civil Rights Movement- Montgomery, Alabama, 1955”, this exhibition features several iconic photographs of the civil rights movement on loan from the Donald and Peggy Cravens private collection. The photos, originally published in Life magazine during the 1950s, focuses on the early critical events of the civil rights movement from the Montgomery Bus Boycott and Rosa Parks in 1955 to the lynching of Mack Charles Parker in 1959 (Empty Cell, Empty Boots). Other photos feature community leaders who join forces to support their cause (Holt Street and the Ebenezer Baptist Church). Rising above the social upheaval and violence that ensued around forced segregation, a promising leader, Martin Luther King, Jr., would emerge to galvanize and give hope to the African-American community.
The Opening Reception is scheduled from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm, City Hall, Cathedral City. The reception is free and open to the public. It will be catered by Cello’s Bistro.
