A.G. Gancarski
There were rumblings last week that some civil rights leaders in Jacksonville were unhappy with the yearly Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast.
This week, there is written confirmation.
A letter in the mailbox of Mayor Lenny Curry from Jacksonville NAACP President Isaiah Rumlin let it be known that while the NAACP, the SCLC, and the Urban League will not be “pulling out of participation,” they have decided to “take the lead on planning this annual event effective immediately.”
“We believe that by bringing this breakfast back to the civil rights organizations,” Rumlin wrote this week, “it will more accurately reflect the vision and dream of the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King.”
This year’s program showed cognitive dissonance at times, between an excerpted version of the King legacy and the realities of Jacksonville’s socioeconomic and cultural divides. For more on that, read last week’s recap of the MLK Breakfast in Jacksonville.
There seems to be dispute among the groups as to whether Rumlin’s letter represents consensus.
As Juan Gray of the local SCLC told WJCT Friday, “I don’t know what [Rumlin] wanted to do [with the letter], but that wasn’t the accurate message to send to a mayor who’s already confused.”
The mayor’s office notes that Curry and Rumlin are going to meet, but that they are waiting to hear from Rumlin regarding an acceptable date and time for the meeting.
The city’s office of special events collaborates with these organizations on the planning of the event, with four planning meetings with the principals.
The Curry administration met with the groups in October, 2015. They had complained of not being included in the planning, and the current administration made sure that they were central, with slots to speak, seats on the dais, and complimentary tables.
Finances, meanwhile, may dictate that the city continue running the event.
2016‘s cost to the office of special events: $133,000.
That number increased in 2017, toward the $150,000 range, but final numbers are not yet available.
