Al Sharpton Announces MLK Weekend Events

WASHINGTON - National Action Network and the Rev. Al Sharpton will convene its annual King Day Events in Washington, New York and Newark, NJ., beginning Sunday, January 16, 2011.  

In Washington, DC, participants to hear a theme of pursuing equality in Education including a keynote address by US Education Secretary Arne Duncan, and remarks by AFT President Randi Weingarten, Asst. Secretary of Labor William Spriggs, and EPA Director Lisa Jackson.

In New York community members to hear remarks from Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, Former NYC Mayor David Dinkins and others and will be followed by a panel on Anti-Violence.

The events will take place as follows:

January 16, 2010
Rev. Sharpton will be a featured guest on "Meet the Press"on NBC  with David Gregory
"Meet the Press" airs Sundays from 9-10 a.m. ET on the NBC-TV network; 10:30-11:30 a.m. ET in New York and Washington. 

King Day - January 17, 2010
Washington, DC
9:00 a.m.
The Madison A Loews Hotel
1177 15th Street NW
Washington, DC 20005

New York City
12:00 (Noon)
National Action Network"s "House of Justice"
106 West 145th Street @ Lenox Avenue

Newark, NJ
6:00 p.m.
149 Springfield Avenue
Newark, NJ 07103-3037

BACKGROUND:
NAN will host its annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day activities on Monday, January 17th, 2011 in both Washington, DC and New York City.  King Day 2011 will kick off in Washington, DC, at 8:45 a.m. with NAN's annual King Day breakfast featuring leaders in civil rights, labor, education, public policy and clergy. Featured attendees will include United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan and Randi Weingarten, the President of the American Federation of Teachers. Later that morning at the "House of Justice" NAN's national headquarters in Harlem, New York, the annual King Day Public Policy forum will be held at 11:00 a.m. featuring a myriad of national figures and New York state elected officials, activists, community leaders and clergy. At the end of the forum there will be Town Hall Meeting live on the radio to discuss stemming the tide of gun violence in our community. King Day will close with a special service in Newark, New Jersey, at Metropolitan Baptist Church. All of NAN's King Day celebrations will benefit the community and celebrate the legacy of civil rights on a national scale.

The theme of education and anti-violence will be highlighted at both of NAN's King Day events and the holiday season has been highlighted by NAN's continued work around education including recent events around the country such as the gun buy back and anti-violence summit NAN led in New York City with the NYPD and more.  NAN will further our education efforts in 2011 with a tour across the country to shed light upon the achievement gap. Rev. Al Sharpton has called education reform the civil rights issue of the 21st Century and it is a key component of NAN's agenda.