The Selma Times-Journal

The message during the Martin and Coretta King Beloved Community Unity Breakfast on Sunday morning was about more than bridging the gap between blacks and whites.

It became apparent that if true progress is to be made, young and old and people of differing social and economic classes must unite for the same cause.

Among the panel of speakers during the breakfast were Dr. Frederick D. Reese, Atty. Faya Rose Toure, Mayor James Perkins Jr., Dallas County Probate Judge Kim Ballard, Sen. Hank Sanders, Rev. Joe Knight and Representative Sheila Lee Jackson (D-Texas).

Joshua Finch of the 21st Century Youth Leadership Movement spoke of the importance of people sharing lessons about the things they are trying to protect the next generation from enduring.

A common theme of the morning was the power of awareness in the process of unification.

Kimmie Weeks, a special guest speaker from Liberia, Africa, expressed disappointment over the problems of hunger, poverty and disease being ignored throughout the continent.