January observance will feature business lunch, worship service, celebration and more
Blount Countians are invited to celebrate the life and legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., with three observances planned for the 2023 MLK Day holiday and preceding weekend.
Members of the Blount County MLK Celebration Planning Committee recently announced information about events set for Jan. 13-16, including the names of guest speakers.
WATE 6 On Your Side’s Tearsa Smith will be the keynote speaker at the annual MLK Day Business Luncheon, scheduled for noon, Jan. 13, at the Airport Hilton.
The Rev. Vivian Hill, associate minister at Rest Haven Baptist Church, will lead the community worship service at St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Alcoa at 4 p.m., Jan. 15. Alcoa native and Berea College Professor Emeritus the Rev. Andrew Baskin will be the keynote speaker for the 2023 MLK Day Celebration, scheduled for 2 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 16, in the Ronald and Lynda Nutt Theatre of the Clayton Center for the Arts at Maryville College.
“We’re excited about and thankful for the opportunity to have Tearsa Smith, Vivian Hill and Andrew Baskin help lead this year’s celebration,” said Belinda Kenny, co-chair of the Blount County MLK Celebration Planning Committee. “They will each bring a different perspective to our theme of ‘A Time of Healing and Restoration’ and help us think differently about working to create what Dr. King described as ‘The Beloved Community.’”
Organizers also announced that the Rev. Dr. Willa Estell, pastor of St. Paul A.M.E. Zion Church in Maryville and president of the Alcoa Blount County NAACP chapter, will be the grand marshal for the annual MLK Day March. Marchers will assemble for it at 12:30 p.m., Jan. 16, at the Martin Luther King Community Center in Alcoa and walk to the Maryville College campus for the afternoon celebration.
The winners of the Anthony Dunning Community Service Award and MLK Scholarship will be announced during the celebration.
Smith will headline business luncheon
Smith has served as anchor of WATE’s Good Morning Tennessee since 2005. She also reports on health and wellness, headlines several yearly WATE special projects programs like WATE’s Black History and Hispanic Heritage specials, and hosts the bi-weekly magazine show, “Voices of the Valley with Tearsa Smith.” Her work has been recognized by the Society of Professional Journalists, the Tennessee Associated Press, and Knoxville’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Commission.
Tickets for the luncheon are $35 each or $350 for a table of 10 and can be purchased through the celebration planning committee’s Facebook page, facebook.com/mlkblount, or by contacting the Blount County Chamber of Commerce. The deadline for reserving seats for the luncheon is Jan. 6, 2023.
Hill active in ministry
Hill, a graduate of Alcoa High School and Knoxville State Area Vocational/Technical Institute, accepted her call to preach the Gospel in 1994. She served as an associate pastor at Bethel Baptist Church in Alcoa, where she also was ordained in 1998. For many years, she led the nursing home ministry and served as a volunteer chaplain for female inmates at the Blount County Justice Center.
In 2007, Hill was installed as the new pastor of Clouds of Faith Baptist Church in Alcoa, becoming the first female pastor in the Knoxville District Baptist Association. After pastoring for six years, she united with Rest Haven Baptist Church — also in Alcoa — where she serves today as associate minister, leads the Heart to Heart Women’s Ministry and sings in the choir.
Hill was a staff member at Maryville College for 31 years before retiring in 2021 as the office manager of Residence Life. She has served on the Blount County MLK Celebration Planning Committee for seven years.
Baskin was pioneer at Berea
Baskin, who graduated from Alcoa High School in 1969, majored in History at Berea College and went on to earn a master’s degree in American History from Virginia Tech. He began his teaching career at Ferrum College before returning to Berea, where he became the first director of the Black Cultural and Interracial Education Program.
He taught African and African-American Studies for 36 years at Berea and earned many honors and awards. One of his research projects was working with CDJ Media of Blount County to preserve the oral “History of Blacks in Blount County as Told by Those Who Lived It.”
Baskin was licensed and ordained into the ministry in 2005 and 2008, respectively, and currently serves as associate minister at Bethsaida Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky.
Attendance at the event is free and open to the public.
Choir members sought
Community members of all faiths are invited to come together to form the MLK Celebration Mass Choir, directed by Larry Ervin, that will perform during the Jan. 15 Community Worship Service and Jan. 16 MLK Day Celebration.
Rehearsals will be held in the Harry H. Harter Choir Room of the Clayton Center for the Arts at Maryville College at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 15, 20, 22 and Jan 3, 8 and 10.
For more information, visit facebook.com/mlkblount.