Southfield and Farmington Hills schedule events in recognition of MLK

SOUTHFIELD/FARMINGTON HILLS — On Jan. 20, after press time, marchers were set to brave the cold to walk one mile from Hope United Methodist Church, 26275 Northwestern Highway, to the Southfield Pavilion, 26000 Evergreen Road, for the 40th annual “Peace Walk” in Southfield, honoring the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr.

The walk was scheduled to be followed by a program, with remarks from Fumi Johns Stewart of May Peace Prevail On Earth International, who was slated to bring 130 flags for marchers to carry and place in the Southfield Pavillion.

Guests were also set to celebrate MLK’s legacy with the annual Taste Fest, featuring samples from local businesses in the area.

The MLK Task Force also held the MLK Youth Service Awards on Jan. 14 to honor youth for their community service, and was set to hold a food giveaway, in collaboration with Forgotten Harvest, a nonprofit that assists families facing food insecurity, on Jan. 17.

Every year since 1986, on the third Monday of January, the city of Southfield has attracted crowds to honor King’s legacy with the annual walk for peace.

The tradition, which was started by the “mother of Southfield,” Barbara Talley, began on Jan. 20, 1986.

Talley also founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Task Force, a nonprofit organization dedicated to “commemorating the holiday symbolizing brotherhood among all men, reminding us of the ongoing struggle to keep the dream alive for human rights in our community, and for peace throughout the world.”

Talley was the first African American elected to the Southfield City Council and served from 1983 until 1989. The Peace Walk was born out of Talley’s desire to hold an event to honor MLK’s legacy in Southfield, after being encouraged by a state official.

She began discussing ideas with people, and after a Southfield High School assistant principal suggested a peace walk, she got to work organizing with community leaders to hold the first Peace Walk event.

Now, 40 years later, Talley said the walk is “very much thought about, especially by me. I just hope that I’ll be here for it next year.”

Southfield Mayor Ken Siver has been a friend of Talley’s since the 1970s when she first moved to the city and he knocked on her door to welcome her to Southfield.

Siver was a founding member of the task force and one of the first people that Talley enlisted to help plan the first Peace Walk event.

“I’ve been friends with Barbara for 50 years, and so when she started the Martin Luther King Task Force, she called me and asked me to help her,” Siver said.

At 93 years old, Talley remains active in the MLK Task Force, with the planning for the annual Peace Walk event beginning in March.

“We at least get one month off,” she joked.

Talley added that in addition to being known as the “mother of Southfield,” she also earned the nickname “mother of civil rights in Southfield.”

Talley said that this year’s theme is  “Social Justice Through Equality, Inclusion and Diversity.”

“Equality stands for being equal in everything that we do and inclusion is to include everybody that is in the group,” Talley said. “Martin Luther King talked about diversity, and he was a man that we put the name on, and we want to do the same thing that he stood for, and that was diversity and bringing people together. He lost his life for all of that, and that’s why we stand for diversity and Dr. Martin Luther King.”

According to Talley, there were about 1,000 people who attended the first Peace Walk event, which took place from North Congregational Church, which is now Hope United Methodist Church, to the Southfield Pavilion.

Although Southfield was the first city in Michigan to hold a walk in honor of MLK’s birthday, soon after more communities followed suit, with walks taking place all across metro Detroit.

The Farmington Community Library was scheduled to host the MLK Annual Legacy March Jan. 20 at its Farmington Hills location.

Kristel Sexton, who is the head of children’s services at the FCL, described the legacy march as a “mainstay” of the library’s festivities for the holiday.

“We’ve been doing this event for decades, and it’s just gotten bigger and better and more inclusive, which I think is really in keeping with what Dr. King would want for a library event in his honor,” Sexton said. “It’s also given us the confidence and the ability to add in more cultural celebrations throughout the year, so we have a really large Asian American Pacific Islander Fest that happens the first Saturday in May every year now, and a lot of the lessons learned from planning this event we’ve taken to create that event and other ones throughout the year, and so I just think that is also a great testament to Dr. King’s legacy of reaching out to every single member of the community as much as possible.”

Jillian Baker, the assistant director at the FCL, also shared some thoughts on the library’s role in recognizing King’s legacy.

“All of us connect differently with MLK’s story and values based on our own personal lives and experiences, so the library’s celebration has always been a way to bring the community together so that they, the members of the community, can reflect on those values, no matter how they may define them,” Baker said. “So we are very happy to be able to provide programs and experiences where people can reflect on those values and what they might mean to them.”

Prior to the march, according to Sexton, the library was also set to have an MLK Day art contest and a presentation featuring a collection of protest buttons from the Henry Ford Museum.

One of her favorite aspects of the celebration has been engaging youth to be part of it.

“What we’re really proud of is, in the last few years, since the pandemic, we really worked hard to partner closely with the Farmington Public Schools and get the middle schoolers and high schoolers deeply involved with the day so that students’ voices are really centered,” Sexton said. “We feel like that’s the future of our community and something that kind of honors the legacy of Dr. King and his activism.”

For more information on the MLK Task Force, visit www.mlktaskforcemi.org.

To learn more about what’s going on at the Farmington Community Library, visit www.farmlib.org.