Allegheny County Bar Association hosts annual MLK Day prayer breakfast
Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and while he was an iconic civil rights leader, he was also a minister.
It's fitting that for the past 27 years, the Allegheny County Bar Association has hosted a prayer breakfast. It's served as a moment to honor the life and legacy of Dr. King.
Around 200 people filled the rooms at Mount Ararat Baptist Church on Monday.
"This is what it's all about," said Peter McCall, the chair of the Homer S. Brown Division of the Allegheny County Bar Association. "These current times, we believe that it is important to remember Dr. King, remember his lessons of civility, lessons of persistence."
"Justice that is denied by anybody is justice denied by everybody, and so, we're here because Martin Luther King stood for justice," fellow attendee Marilyn Caldwell said.
It's a persistence for justice paired with a moment of reflection on Dr. King's dream.
"It is wonderful to see so many people here, multigenerational and ethnic. Martin Luther King, that was his dream," Caldwell added.
It's a dream coming to fruition at this event, both in terms of food and spiritually, all part of an event that has turned into one of the most storied MLK Day events in the Pittsburgh region.
"It's one of the very few events that gathers elected officials and lawyers, law students," said Homer S. Brown Division Chair-elect Kellie Ware.
This year at the prayer breakfast, the bar association is also honoring Judge Nicola Henry-Taylor, an Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas judge who has spent countless hours dedicated to the community with a focus on fairness, dignity, and inclusion for all.
"It means so much that I don't think words can capture it," said Henry-Taylor.
These moments in this Larimer church mark a memorable celebration of keeping Dr. King's life and legacy alive.
"The man up in heaven, our father God, blesses us all, and he sure as heck blesses Dr. King and everyone who's gathered in here," said Jeff Snyder of Mount Ararat Baptist Church.