Atlantic Beach hosts the Beaches Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration on Saturday, January, 14

ATLANTIC BEACH, Fla. — Atlantic Beach is hosting the Beaches Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration on Saturday, January 14, at 11 a.m., at Jacksonville’s Seawalk Pavilion located on 75 First St. N.

Supported by the Cities of Atlantic Beach, Jacksonville Beach, and Neptune Beach and presented by the Rhoda L. Martin Cultural Heritage Center, this year’s theme touts, “Together we can be the dream.”

Guest Speaker and Council Member Rory Diamond described the annual event as spectacular and awesome.

“The Beaches Martin Luther King Jr. Day is the only celebration of its kind that brings the community together with a true message of unity,” he said.

Describing Dr. King’s message as one that resonates with everyone, Diamond says his message will be “perfect” for the Beaches, a “laid-back community where neighbors look out for each other.”

He added that in addition to sharing the community service spearheaded by the Rhoda L. Martin Cultural Heritage Center, he will address the issue surrounding the violence in Jacksonville.

“Frankly, Jacksonville’s had a very tough year,” he continued. “We need to build bridges over the existing divide. I think we can do a lot better.”

Diamond described the Beaches community as being fortunate to have side-stepped the violence that Jacksonville has experienced, which will add to his message of “keeping it that way.”

“The way we do that is by pulling each other closer together,” he concluded.

Established in 2007 and named after Rhoda L. Martin, who was born into slavery in 1832, the Cultural Heritage Center serves to “promote” and “preserve” the cultural history of the early African-American educational experience within the three-beach community. According to the Cultural Heritage Center, Martin moved to the coastal African American neighborhood in the early 1900s. There, she along with Christian community members, founded the St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church and began educating the residents of Jacksonville Beach. She died in 1948 at the age of 116, leaving a “legacy of community service affecting generations of Black children and families at the beaches.”

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