Loxley group to host march, outside program

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LOXLEY, Alabama — The Loxley Area Martin Luther King Group is moving forward with plans to hold its 16th annual march, but this year, instead of their normal program, they will host a day of prayer outside.

According to event organizers, just as they have the previous 15 years, the group will march beginning at 9 a.m. Monday, Jan. 18 at the Loxley Church of God, up Alabama 59 to the Loxley Civic Center.

Instead of its normal program inside the Loxley Civic Center, however, the group will gather for a day of prayer on the grounds at the Civic Center, following the theme “Prayer can and will change situations.”

“Now more than ever, we need to come together as Americans,” said Ronnie McBride, who has helped organize the event since inception. “With all that is going on in the world, we need to recognize that everyone deserves to be treated the same.”

Each year, the nationwide Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service is held on the third Monday of January to commemorate his birthday on Jan. 15. Introduced as legislation by U.S. Sen. Harris Wofford of Pennsylvania and Atlanta Congressman John Lewis, MLK Day was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994.

Marches held in King’s honor commemorate the 1965 march from Selma to Montgomery that created national support for federal voting rights legislation.