Gus Young area residents party before Martin Luther King Jr. Day
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BATON ROUGE – With spicy jambalaya and blasting music, residents of the Gus Young area of Baton Rouge kicked off the Dr. Martin Luther King Day Celebration.
“Historically, block parties have been opportunities to unite around food, fellowship and around good music,” Mayor Sharon Weston Broome said. “That’s what we see happening today.”
Star Hill Baptist Church sponsored the King Day block party. Members of The Walls Project joined in the celebration by painting a mural and using their art as an instrument to bring the community together.
“We see things in a lot of different ways, but we can all appreciate beauty,” Alexis Moon said. “That’s what we wanted to bring to this community.”
But Sunday’s party was more than just a Pre-King Day celebration. It is also an opportunity to let residents know a new community center is coming to the same location.
The Community Change Center will offer meeting rooms, computer labs and a day care center. It will also include historical information about some of the city’s early African American leaders.
“Folks like Gus Young and Pearl George were bedrocks of this community,” Jason Thrower said. “It’s important for folks to know that history of the community and understand their role in continuing on that legacy.”