Aurora event to honor legacy of Martin Luther King

The city of Aurora is preparing to offer its 39th annual Martin Luther King Day ceremony at 6 p.m. Jan. 15 at Calvary Church, 9S200 Route 59 on the border of Aurora and Naperville.

The evening’s program will include a celebration of the life and legacy of the civil rights leader including “youth performances, community awards and special guest speakers,” according to a press release from the city.

One of the featured speakers will be the youngest Ph.D. candidate in America, 17-year-old Dorothy Jean Tillman II, of Chicago, who earned her bachelor’s degree from Excelsior College at age 12 and her master’s degree from Unity College in Maine at age 14, event organizers said.

“Dorothy Jean Tillman just completed her PhD in integrated behavioral health from Arizona State University,” the release said, adding she “is the founder and CEO of the Dorothyjeanius STEAM Leadership Institute in Chicago and Capetown, South Africa … and determined to inspire youth and to provide pathways for the next generation.”

The program will also include an appearance from the award-winning actor Tyler Lepley, who has been seen on the Tyler Perry show “The Have and the Have Nots” on the Oprah Winfrey Network as well as “Harlem” on Amazon Prime.

A former football scholarship athlete at Kutztown University, Lepley went on to earn a degree in criminal justice before embarking on an acting career.

Clayton Muhammad, chief communications and equity officer for the city of Aurora, spoke about the significance of the program and how this would be the first year he would be organizing it without the help of the late Aurora Ald. Scheketa Hart-Burns, who died last June.

“I started working on this 20 years ago, and it hit me this weekend as I started planning things how I would call her just to ask about certain things. I went to pick up the phone and then remembered – I can’t do that anymore,” Muhammad said. “As we go through this year, we’ll have those milestones which makes it more significant for me as well as the community.”

Muhammad noted that Tillman is the granddaughter of former Chicago Ald. Dorothy Tillman, who he said “was close with Hart-Burns as well and will be in attendance Monday night.”

The event on Jan. 15 will also put the spotlight on some of Aurora’s promising youngsters, he said.

“Back in 1951, American poet Langston Hughes asked the question, ‘What happens to a dream deferred,’ and this year, we decided to flip the script on that and created our theme of ‘What happens to a dream determined?’” Muhammad said. “We chose the theme from the poem ‘Harlem’ and it sums up so much of that period of Black America and America as a whole. We wanted to take the opportunity to flip that and that’s where we really can build on King’s dream as well Aurora and where we’re going as a community and as individuals and seeing beyond your ZIP code.”

The program will also include the city’s 2024 Service Above Self awards that are given to “students in middle school, high school or college who honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King and his commitment to community service, justice and equity,” he said.

“These awards are for young people who are doing just what Tillman and Lepley are doing – finding their way in this world and giving back,” Muhammad said. “We’ll also have our annual Donna J. Williams Award of Service to a number of community members and some youth performances as we make way for our 40th celebration next year. This is a way of telling our community – we don’t just take this as a day off school – it’s an opportunity to recalibrate, reinvigorate our own perceptions and potential here in Aurora.”

Muhammad said it “was fortunate to move the event to a bigger venue – Calvary Church - as we figured it was going to be a bigger event once we secured” the two main guest speakers.

“We just launched this the first week here in January and there are nearly 1,000 RSVPs already,” he said Monday. “Regarding the Service Above Self awards, we’ve allowed parents, coaches and teachers to nominate and have opened it to the whole community. We’ll narrow that down to about a dozen students who will receive plaques.”

Nominations for the Service Above Self awards can be made at www.aurora-il.org/FormCenter/Mayors-Office-22/2024-MLK-Service-Above-Self-Award-Indivi-198. The deadline for nominations is Jan. 7.

To reserve a spot at the city’s free Martin Luther King Day event, go to www.eventbrite.com/e/auroras-39th-annual-mlk-ceremony-tickets-785114607927.

David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.