A day of jazz, cool vibes honors MLK's Detroit Walk to Freedom
(CBS DETROIT) - A group of Detroiters commemorated the 60th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s Detroit Walk to Freedom in a special way over the weekend with a day of music, arts and culture.
"We want to both tell the history through the music of that struggle and of that fight that continues today for equity, for freedom, for equality, for social justice, for racial justice, said Barbara Barefield, People for Palmer Park events chair. "What we wanted to do was to bring culture and art into the park. Music, dance, theater, visual arts, but be telling the story of our history and of our fights for freedom and using art as a vehicle to communicate with the community about how important freedom, freedom of expression, a history of our struggles for freedom, and have it expressed through the artworks."
Even though we have come a long way since Dr. King's iconic speech that led to a monumental change in America and around the world, Barefield said keeping the message of the Detroit Walk to Freedom alive is still very important today.
"In an era where they're trying to ban books and freedom of expression, we've got to do everything in our power to go the opposite direction," she said. "We need to create conceptual and visual and creative thinkers in our young people, and we need to inspire them and connect them with what the history was so that we can continue working toward those goals of equality and freedom for everybody."