Our Mission
The mission of the Martin Luther King Community Coalition is to keep Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy alive through education and volunteerism.
Our Motto
“Making the Dream a Reality” encapsulates the ideals guiding our work. Moving from a visionary state to one of reality requires action. We want to ensure that we are constantly progressing, moving forward, and doing something to achieve, and even, move beyond, the dream of Dr. King.
Our Legacy
For nearly three decades, the King Coalition has paved the way for people living in the Pasadena, Altadena, and surrounding communities to keep Dr. King’s legacy alive through community and bridge building.
In 1975, before the King Coalition was officially organized, a core group of 10 individuals were intricately involved in the work leading to making Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday.
Over the past 26 years, the King Coalition has sponsored the Martin Luther King Essay Contest encouraging students in the Pasadena Unified School District and local private schools to write essays addressing different aspects of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy.
In August 1985, a community meeting was convened at Scott United Methodist Church in Pasadena, California bringing together peace-, understanding-, and freedom-loving people to address some of the spiritual, educational, economic, employment, health, and welfare problems facing the community.
Beginning in 2003, the coalition introduced the art contest to include the growing pool of talented student visual artists. Notably, the combined entries from both the essay and art contests have numbered well into the thousands. To date,
20,000 students have entered the essay contest
2,585 young artists have submitted entries for the art contest
All students who enter the contests receive certificates for their participation
Also, thousands of dollars have been awarded to students from elementary, middle school, and high schools during this period of time. All monetary awards come from donations from individuals and local organizations.
Coalition
Since the Pasadena Martin Luther King Community Coalition began, it has worked in cooperation with both the City of Pasadena and the Pasadena Unified School District to address issues relevant to the dream Dr. King articulated in his seminal speech.
Over the years, the Coalition has also grown through support from community partners such as Pasadena Tournament of Roses, the National Sorority of Phi Delta Kappa, Inc., the Pasadena & Altadena NAACP, the Ecumenical Council of Churches, Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance and Aspires West Pasadena. Likewise, much of the strongest support has come from a number of like-minded charitable organizations and individuals at a grassroots level through participation and donations.
Coalition Membership
The Coalition consists of approximately 20 – 25 people who meet ten (10) months of the year to plan, organize, and strategize the work to be done.
Monthly Meetings
Each first Saturday of the month, the Coalition meets from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. unless otherwise noted. For updated meeting information, please send an email to pasadenamlk@gmail.com.
Volunteers
Inasmuch as the MLK Community Coalition is a loosely structured organization, membership is determined by attendance and participation.
We invite the community members who are interested in working to keep Dr. King’s legacy alive throughout the San Gabriel Valley and beyond to join the movement. Coalition membership is open to people who want to volunteer in the following areas:
- Reading student essays submitted
- Assessing, reviewing, and judging art work submitted
- Event planning and fundraising