[Newspaper clipping: Show celebrates King, his work] Page: 1 of 2
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Commemorative performance
4 I
I
IEmmy Award-winning actress Esther Rolle nar-
rates the Junior Black Academy of Arts and Let-
ters program Sunday marking the Rev. Martin Lu-The Dallas Morning News David Woo
ther King Jr.'s birthday. Ms. Rolle sits in a replica
of a slave ship as performers chained together
like slaves come on stage at the Music Hall.Show celebrates King, his work
By Todd Copilevitz
'aff Writer
From the dark they slowly emerged,
20 young black men chained together
like slaves, wearing loincloths and
marching to the rhythm of tribal drums.
The men and the beat of the drums
heat Sunday night took more than 1,800
people in Fair Park Music Hall on a jour-
n ey through the heritage of blacks in
America, a journey to the villages of Af-
rica and through the monumental gains
of the man the evening celebrated, the
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr."If we don't know where we've been,
we can't know where we're going," said
the Rev. Zan Holmes Jr. as the Junior
Black Academy of Arts and Letters
kicked off its fifth annual celebration of
King's birthday.
For the second year in a row, Broad-
way musical and recording star Jennifer
Holliday starred in the production. She
was joined by Emmy Award-winning ac-
tress Esther Rolle, who narrated the per-
formance.
Before the 90-minute show was over,
the two women, along with more than450 members of the academy, including a
300-voice choir drawn from local
churches, worked their way through
tribal chants, spirituals and a powerful
rendition of America.
Cold weather and a scattering of ice
limited the crowd in the Music Hall at
Fair Park, but academy organizers said
the performance marked continued suc-
cess for the event. In particular, they
were heartened by continued acceptance
of the program by the noh-black commu-
Please see ACADEMY'S on Page 14A.1
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Copilevitz, Todd. [Newspaper clipping: Show celebrates King, his work], newspaper, 1988; Dallas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1615684/m1/1/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.