AUBURN - The legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. is not an easy one to continue. But community leaders and local activists on Tuesday showed that legacy is still vibrant in Cayuga County.
Jill Connor / The Citizen
Auburn City Judge Michael F. McKeon speaks after receiving an Auburn/Cayuga NAACP Millennium Award at the luncheon where he and four other community members were honored at the Auburn Holiday Inn on Tuesday.
Auburn City Judge Michael F. McKeon speaks after receiving an Auburn/Cayuga NAACP Millennium Award at the luncheon where he and four other community members were honored at the Auburn Holiday Inn on Tuesday.
The Auburn/Cayuga branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People recognized five local citizens with the 2009 Millennium Awards. The awards, which are given every year in the name of King, recognize individuals who best continue the leader's efforts toward racial equality.
Business owner and mentor Robert Barnes, Auburn City Court Judge Michael McKeon, community activist Joe Leogrande, pastor Willie Murray and educator Heidi Nightengale all received the award.
This is the first group to be nominated by community members instead of the chapter board since the award was first given in 2000, said Eli Hernandez, president of the local NAACP.
“We were able to go out to the community and say ‘Who do you think exemplifies what (Martin Luther King) has done?'” Hernandez said.
During the luncheon, speakers and recipients repeatedly expressed optimism over the coming inauguration of the country's first black president. One of the recipients, District Elder Willie Murray, said generations would have never made it through slavery, segregation and discrimination without people who value community and equality.
“We made it from the outhouse to the White House,” said Murray, who was given the 2009 Millennium Award because of his years of mentorship and service through his church on Fitch Avenue in Auburn.
Speakers also pointed to a number of other milestones in national race relations, including the coming 100th anniversary or the NAACP and 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth.
“As we look toward the future, there is much to be proud of,” Hernandez told the crowd at the Auburn Holiday Inn. “We must continue to march on to make sure that all people receive the rights and benefits of this great nation.”
During the ceremony, the Booker T. Washington Community Center Youth Step Team performed two choreographed step routines. Each of the award winners then briefly spoke, and most of them quoted or referred to people who inspired them.
Leogrande, who was honored for his years of service and activism as an educator and on various other local boards and commissions, quoted Coretta Scott King. He read excerpts from a letter King wrote in support of a national holiday honoring her late husband, which takes place Monday.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be a “day of interracial and inter-cultural cooperation and caring,” Leogrande read. “This is not a black holiday. This is a peoples' holiday.”
McKeon quoted King himself, as well as President-elect Barack Obama, about the importance of public service. McKeon has instituted multiple programs in the city such as drug and alcohol treatment court, family court and mental health courts that place an emphasis on rehabilitation over punishment.
“They are really the true heroes of our time,” he said of community members who work to serve the public.
Barnes is a local business owner who has mentored local youth through the Booker T. Washington Center and Cayuga Home for Children and who mobilized the youth vote during the 2008 election. Receiving his award, Barnes thanked his sister and mother, among other friends and family.
“No matter what life throws at you, it can only make you stronger,” he said.
Upon receiving her award, Nightengale cited influential psychologist Erik Erikson, who said that becoming an adult means learning how to care for others. Nightengale was recognized for her service through various local organizations, as well as her work with adult students as an educator with Empire State College.
For people to become adults as Erikson defines them, Nightengale said, they must during childhood have positive experiences with adults themselves.
“I encourage all of you to think about how to become in some way, any way, that kind of adult who is going to be able to bring up that spirit of caring in the next generation,” she said.
Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net.
Business owner and mentor Robert Barnes, Auburn City Court Judge Michael McKeon, community activist Joe Leogrande, pastor Willie Murray and educator Heidi Nightengale all received the award.
This is the first group to be nominated by community members instead of the chapter board since the award was first given in 2000, said Eli Hernandez, president of the local NAACP.
“We were able to go out to the community and say ‘Who do you think exemplifies what (Martin Luther King) has done?'” Hernandez said.
During the luncheon, speakers and recipients repeatedly expressed optimism over the coming inauguration of the country's first black president. One of the recipients, District Elder Willie Murray, said generations would have never made it through slavery, segregation and discrimination without people who value community and equality.
“We made it from the outhouse to the White House,” said Murray, who was given the 2009 Millennium Award because of his years of mentorship and service through his church on Fitch Avenue in Auburn.
Speakers also pointed to a number of other milestones in national race relations, including the coming 100th anniversary or the NAACP and 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth.
“As we look toward the future, there is much to be proud of,” Hernandez told the crowd at the Auburn Holiday Inn. “We must continue to march on to make sure that all people receive the rights and benefits of this great nation.”
During the ceremony, the Booker T. Washington Community Center Youth Step Team performed two choreographed step routines. Each of the award winners then briefly spoke, and most of them quoted or referred to people who inspired them.
Leogrande, who was honored for his years of service and activism as an educator and on various other local boards and commissions, quoted Coretta Scott King. He read excerpts from a letter King wrote in support of a national holiday honoring her late husband, which takes place Monday.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day should be a “day of interracial and inter-cultural cooperation and caring,” Leogrande read. “This is not a black holiday. This is a peoples' holiday.”
McKeon quoted King himself, as well as President-elect Barack Obama, about the importance of public service. McKeon has instituted multiple programs in the city such as drug and alcohol treatment court, family court and mental health courts that place an emphasis on rehabilitation over punishment.
“They are really the true heroes of our time,” he said of community members who work to serve the public.
Barnes is a local business owner who has mentored local youth through the Booker T. Washington Center and Cayuga Home for Children and who mobilized the youth vote during the 2008 election. Receiving his award, Barnes thanked his sister and mother, among other friends and family.
“No matter what life throws at you, it can only make you stronger,” he said.
Upon receiving her award, Nightengale cited influential psychologist Erik Erikson, who said that becoming an adult means learning how to care for others. Nightengale was recognized for her service through various local organizations, as well as her work with adult students as an educator with Empire State College.
For people to become adults as Erikson defines them, Nightengale said, they must during childhood have positive experiences with adults themselves.
“I encourage all of you to think about how to become in some way, any way, that kind of adult who is going to be able to bring up that spirit of caring in the next generation,” she said.
Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net.
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