Celebrations for Martin Luther King Jr. Day took place around the Columbus area on Monday in downtown, Whitehall and Worthington.
Speakers celebrated King's legacy, his impact and his local ties to the civil rights movement that he helped lead. Dana Tyler a former news anchor in Columbus, spoke of Dr. King's impact on her family at the Worthington United Methodist Church.
Journalist Kevin Ahmaad Jenkins spoke at the 40th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Breakfast at the Greater Columbus Convention Center. State Rep. Ismaiil Mohamed spoke during the Whitehall Community Park YMCA ceremony.
Tyler spoke about her family's history in the area and how they endured segregated schools, redlining and racist bank practices.
"My mother says we were denied a mortgage because we were Black," Tyler said. "There were already Black families living here in Worthington who told my parents, 'Good schools, good people. We we have a community here.'
"So my parents did not give up. My dad finally got the mortgage. He had to go to Sunbury to finally get a bank that would give him the mortgage," Tyler said.
She grew up in Worthington before working for WBNS as an intern, reporter and anchor.
Tyler went on to become part of New York City's first African American anchor team at WCBS.
"Doesn't matter what color we are. We wanted to do well. We wanted to be trusting, warm and calming and most of all be ourselves. I wish Dr. King, I wish my dad. I wish a lot of people could have seen that," Tyler said.
Tyler spoke of her great grandfather, Ralph Waldo Tyler, who she said was the first Black war correspondent during World War I reporting on Black soldiers fighting in France. Tyler also says her uncle David Harris became the first Black commercial airline pilot in the U.S. in 1964.
Tyler also acknowledged the gravity of this year's MLK Jr. Day sharing a date with the second inauguration of President Donald Trump in Washington D.C.
"I know it's the inauguration day and lots of mixed feelings. Everything, euphoria, depression, despair, excitement, optimism... pessimism, apathy. But we got to come to hope, hope, hope, hope. We can all have hope. And so I really hope that we hold on to hope. And think of Dr. King," Tyler said.
Worthington's other speakers included staff at Worthington City Schools, Kisha Gunn of the Worthington Alliance of Black Families and others from the community.
