MLK film, spoken word added to Daytona’s events

The 2022 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. remembrance will kick off with a January 4 screening of a rarely-seen civil rights documentary at the Museum of Arts & Sciences (MOAS), followed by a spoken-word performance of King speeches at a local church.

Entitled “KING: A Filmed Record...Mont-gomery To Memphis,” the Academy Award-nominated documentary film is constructed from a wealth of archival footage. It follows King from 1955 to 1968 in his rise from regional activist to world-renowned leader of the civil rights movement.  

The first screening is Jan. 4, 2022 at 1 p.m., followed by two other showings: Feb. 1 at 1 p.m., and March 1 at 1 p.m.

MOAS is located at 352 South Nova Road in Daytona Beach. The landmark film will be shown in its three-hour entirety – with an intermission after the first 90 minutes – in MOAS’s Root Family Auditorium, which seats 266 people.

Children’s choir

The spoken word event entitled, “The Trumpet of Conscience: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Speaks,” features four of King’s most powerful speeches performed by local students, with musical selections sung by the Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune Children’s Choir under the direction of Mrs. Constance Poitier. This event will be at Allen Chapel AME Church, 550 George W. Engram Blvd., on Sunday, Jan. 15, 2022 at 4 p.m.

Both events are sponsored by 623 Management, an ad agency focused on online and offline advertising and marketing to Black Floridians, and Daytona Beach Zone 3 Commissioner Quanita May.

Admission is free for both events.

As it happened

Rare footage of King’s speeches, protests, and arrests are interspersed with scenes of other high-profile supporters and opponents of the cause, punctuated by testimonials from some of Hollywood’s biggest stars of the 1960s-1970s era, includ- ing Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Ben Gazzara, Charlton Heston, James Earl Jones, Burt Lancaster, Paul Newman, Anthony Quinn, Clarence Williams III, and Joanne Woodward. 

“I remember seeing this documentary in 1970 when it originally aired on television,” explained 623 Management President & CEO Charles W. Cherry II. “This film will show moviegoers the physical danger that Dr. King and the civil rights movement faced that most Americans have never seen.”

“We have always believed the best way to understand Dr. King is to hear him speak in his own voice, and to read his speeches and writings. That’s why ‘The Trumpet of Con-science,’ is so important. The best way to understand someone is to listen to what they say.”

‘Global impact’

“There are few people who have a global impact, and Dr. King was one of them,” explained May. “He impacted my native country, South Africa, in a transformative way.”

May sponsored the 2020 spoken word performance. The 2021 event was cancelled due to COVID-19.

“The young performers and the audience impressed me tremendously (in 2020),” she said. “I’d like to make these performances a tradition in the Daytona Beach area and show a different perspective of Dr. King – one through the children as they speak, and the other in the documentary film.

“I hope people will join me at these presentations in January, February, and March.”