Spirit Of King Awards Ceremony Honors August Wilson, Dr. Leroy Patrick
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- August Wilson and Dr. Leroy Patrick have been named the winners of the Spirit of King Awards for 2014.
Middle school singers from CAPA Performing Arts School stole the show as they performed "We Are the World" as part of the 2014 Spirit of King Awards ceremony.
"What they mean to me is that there's a world that is bad where kids are getting hurt and stuff, and we need to change it and have a better community and come together as one instead of being separate," said Kiarah Floyd, a seventh grader.
That is precisely what this year's award winners would have wanted.
"We have some real legacies here in this region that people don't always know their story, and particularly for young people to know some of the struggles that heroes - and we will call them heroes because that is what they are in the Civil Rights Movement - made many years ago to make life better for what we have right now," said Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald.
Thursday's ceremony may have helped the next generation learn of the great work of playwright August Wilson and Civil Rights leader Rev. Leroy Patrick.
"I think we sung the pieces we selected because it really fits the energy of Martin Luther King and the African American spirit and just that whole thing," said Diamond Coleman, who performed at the ceremony.
Based on the reaction of the audience, that message hit home.
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