More Than 300 Attend Allendale MLK Unity Breakfast, Leaders Call For Service

More than 300 people gathered in Allendale on January 19, 2026, for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast, a program described as a powerful showing of unity and reflection that featured speeches, community recognitions and calls for continued civic engagement. Organizers opened the morning to county residents to mark Dr. King’s legacy through formal recognitions and civic appeals.

The Allendale breakfast’s agenda centered on speeches and community recognitions; published accounts of the event list those program elements but do not provide a complete schedule, list of honorees or a named keynote in the available excerpts. Attendance exceeded 300; the event was explicitly framed as a call to service and ongoing civic engagement for Allendale County residents.

The Allendale gathering was one of several regional MLK observances over the same weekend. In Selma, the Selma Convention Center hosted the 33rd annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Unity Breakfast on Jan. 19, drawing more than 300 attendees and backing from 36 corporate sponsors. The Selma program carried the theme “Three Decades, One Dream: Strengthening Our Community,” with District Court Judge Vernetta Perkins Walker as keynote speaker and leadership listed as Dr. Patricia Kendrick Robinson, Selma Links president, and Dr. Willietta Ellis Conner (also listed elsewhere as Dr. Willietta Coner) as Unity Breakfast chair.

Selma’s program highlighted a health-equity initiative called Black K.A.R.E., which the chapter described as addressing chronic kidney disease through training facilitators and workshops on CKD, free health screenings and referrals, nutritional assistance for dialysis patients, promotion of home dialysis options, and media and church-based outreach reaching thousands. Selma organizers also recognized a Distinguished Citizen, Lemarkus Snow, and awarded a scholarship to Ashley Woods, with Vaughan Regional Medical Center represented among corporate sponsors.

In Rocky Mount, the 38th Annual MLK Jr. Unity Breakfast likewise reported attendance of more than 300 guests and named David Crabtree, CEO of PBS North Carolina, as keynote speaker; Crabtree urged attendees to “love with backbone” and to “trade our wishbones for backbones when it comes to truly loving and standing up for all our neighbors.” The Rocky Mount program noted a special appearance by Josh Stein and included recognition of oratorical competition winners and a Service to Humanity Award recipient.

A regional events listing also recorded an 18th Annual MLK Drum Major Unity Award Breakfast on Jan. 17, 9:00–11:00 a.m., organized by the Omicron Tau Lambda Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha and Old Macedonia Baptist Church, with contact listed at otl.aiken@gmail.com. Taken together, the Allendale breakfast and nearby observances in Selma and Rocky Mount show sustained turnout across neighboring communities during the Jan. 17–19 MLK observance period and reinforce local leaders’ emphasis on service and civic engagement as priorities for the year ahead.