The granddaughter of a local couple will be the featured speaker for the Barton County NAACP Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. observation, this Sunday.
According to NAACP spokeswoman Thelma Russi, Dr. LaKenya Williams will speak at the event, planned for 3 p.m., Sunday, at the First Baptist Church, 1601 Hubbard.
Williams is the granddaughter of Daniel and Alice Nobles of Great Bend.
A native Kansan, she graduated from Pratt High School in 1995, received her bachelor’s degree from Prairie View A&M, in Prairie View, Texas, and continued to receive her PhD in chemistry.
She now lives in New Jersey, where she is a program manager for Bristol Myers Squibb.
There will be refreshments served after the program.
Monday is the official observation of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
President Ronald Reagan signed the legislation creating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day after it had been approved by the Legislature, with a vote of 338 to 90 in the House of Representatives and 78 to 22 in the Senate
It was first observed in January of 1986 and it was officially observed by all 50 states in 2000.
It is officially observed on the third Monday of January, providing an additional federal Monday holiday.
King was born Jan. 15, 1929 and was killed on April 4, 1968.
He led the 1955 Montgomery, Ala. bus boycott, was one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, and led the 1963 march on Washington, D.C.
In recognition of his efforts in leading the civil rights movement, he became the youngest person then to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
After he was killed, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal.