2024 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Remembrance

Keynote Speakers:

Mayor Ashton Hall
&
Ambassador Suzan Cook

Sunday, January 14, 2024, 3:00pm
Contois Auditorium, City Hall
149 Church St, Burlington, VT

Plus on Monday, January 15, 3:00pm: Civil Rights Panel at ECHO Leahy Center

Free tickets are available at City Market, Fletcher Free Library, and ECHO Leahy Center

About Our Speakers

Mayor Ashton Hall

Ashton Hall is a native of Talladega, Alabama. He is the son of Tosha Scott and Adrian Hall, and has three brothers and a sister. Educated in the Talladega City Schools and a 2019 graduate of Talladega High School, Ashton furthered his education at Talladega College where he majored in Child Development & Instruction. He plans to enroll in The University of West Alabama in the spring to pursue his masters in Child Development. A past SGA President in college, he also served as the Southern Province Junior Province Vice Polemarch of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Incorporated for the State of Alabama.

After graduation, he decided to enter in the political arena and was elected as Mayor of the City of Talladega, Alabama. In the runoff election, he became the youngest person elected to the position not only in the city, but in the State of Alabama.

In addition to serving the city of Talladega as Mayor, he is also employed by the Talladega County Board of Education as a Third Grade Teacher at Stemley Road Elementary.

Ambassador Suzan Cook

Suzan Cook is a U.S. presidential advisor, pastor, theologian, author, activist, and academic who served as the United States Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom from April 2011 to October 2013. She has served as a policy advisor to President Bill Clinton and later to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros, a dean and professor of communications at Harvard University, a professor of theology at New York Theological Seminary, a pastor at a number of churches, a television producer, and the author of nearly a dozen books. She was the first female senior pastor in the 200-year history of the Mariners Temple Baptist Church in NYC part of the American Baptist Churches USA and a close friend of Coretta Scott King. She is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Agenda

Black National Anthem
Phylicxia Moore & Thomas Cleary

I Have A Dream
Jaden Gomez

Welcome & Introduction of Mayor Hall
Mayor Weinberger

Opening Keynote
Mayor Ashton Hall

MLK Recognitions Traci Griffith

Howard Center
presented by Mike Simoneau, Geri Reilly Real Estate
City Market
presented by Kim Carson, Racial Equity Inclusion & Belonging Director
Rep. Kevin “Coach” Christie
presented by Heidi Stumpff, Regional President of M&T Bank
Pastor Arnold Thomas
presented by Deacon Jarvis Grant, New Alpha Missionary Baptist Church

I Have A Dream
Lanae Buford, Zaylee Buford, Davyannah Buford

Remarks & Introduction of Keynote
Patrick Brown

Closing Keynote
Ambassador Suzan Johnson Cook

Closing Remarks
Alex Hernandez, President of Champlain College

Musical Tribute
Phylicxia Moore & Thomas Cleary