Who We Are

Welcome to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee of Santa Barbara’s (“MLKSB”) 16th annual presentation. After the past two years of online virtual programs, it is a joy, honor, and privilege to be able to bring back live programs in celebration Dr. King’s life and legacy. I know that we are all glad to be back to see each other and socialize in person again.
These last two and a half years have been difficult for everybody and have been the cause of major changes in how we live. We remain conscious and cautious of the health challenges imposed upon all of us by the pandemic. We had to quickly learn how to navigate communication programs like Zoom on our computers and other devices; meetings, seminars and town halls all transferred to presentations in the virtual world. We are grateful to TVSB who produced the 2022 virtual program, when we had to cancel a few days before MLK holiday.
Through the MLKSB Essay and Poetry Awards Program, students throughout Santa Barbara County have an opportunity to share their views of Dr. King’s legacy of work for social justice, prompted by this year’s MLKSB theme: “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’”
We are happy to announce that, thanks to Delvis Stoute the annual Essay & Poetry Program can now be managed online, from application to submission of essays and poems. This new platform allows for greater outreach to students over more of Santa Barbara County, and for more opportunities for teachers and students to participate. The local branch of the Anti-Defamation League continues to co-sponsor the program.
In 2020 one of our goals was to do a series of townhall meetings on the state of health, education, housing, and employment in communities of color in Santa Barbara County. The first in the series focused on how health was disproportionately affecting low income and marginalized communities, and what was being done to address the situation in Santa Barbara County.
In 2021 the focus was education. MLKSB partnered with Gateway Educational Services to bring together school administrators and teachers from various county school districts to learn about the services being provided by the districts to meet the challenges students from low-income and marginalized communities face in the fast-changing environment of the covid pandemic.
The town hall resulted in school districts committing to do more for such students. The result was that the school district committed to hiring of more administrators of color.
This past Spring we collaborated with the Poor Peoples Campaign-Calif., led by Daisy Beamon, in which the community was invited to participate in a public reading of Dr. King’s letter from a Birmingham jail. MLKSB Board members also participated in a project organized by Healing Justice-Santa Barbara, “Prioritizing the Preservation of Black Legacies in Santa Barbara.” 
More recently, MLKSB was invited by Westmont College to participate in a public conversation with Dr. Clairborne Carson, professor of history at Stanford University and director of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Research and Education Institute. Dr. Carson was selected by Coretta Scott King to head the institute, and is in charge of Dr. King’s papers and related scholarly works.
Two main goals for MLKSB this coming year include obtaining office/meeting space and hiring an Executive Director. MLKSB can no longer continue as an all-volunteer program; an executive director is needed to handle day-to-day matters and to lead the organization into a future, in which MLKSB will be recognized as a part of permanent fabric of the greater Santa Barbara community. A second goal is to continue partnering with other nonprofit organizations providing programs and services that benefit the public at large, as we have done for the past 16 years. 
From MLKSB’s beginning with a one-day celebration of the Martin Luther King holiday to the current schedule of programs and activities the entire weekend starting with the Eternal Flame commemoration on the UCSB campus on Thursday; participation in an MLK-oriented Shabbat service at Congregation B’nai B’rith Friday evening; encouraging participation in volunteer opportunities on “Day of Service” Saturday (putting into action this year’s theme: ‘What are you doing for others?’” encouraging church and faith communities to focus Sunday services on Dr. King’s legacy of compassion and nonviolent struggle for social justice; and the MLK Day holiday programs, starting with a morning program outdoors in De la Guerra Plaza, Unity March up State Street to the Arlington Theater, and the main program in the Arlington Theater.
Your support of MLKSB is needed whether you advocate for the organization, whether you donate money or whether you actively volunteer. Those three avenues of support are really important and help the organization continue to grow. 
In closing, I’d like to play tribute to the outstanding community members that passed away this past year. They include:

Alvin Wallace
Booker Brown
Clevonease Johnson
Jason Oatis
Lorease Amey
Mavis Thibodeaux Patsy Tharp
Rosa Harper
Silas Jackson
Sylvia Pugh
Timmoxena Jackson