Morning, y’all! Happy Martin Luther King Jr. Day, happy Inauguration Day and happy College Football Playoff National Championship Day. Truly, a diverse potpourri of events. This is going to be a just-the-basics, federal holiday kind of edition. We’ll return to our regularly scheduled stuff tomorrow.
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MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. DAY: THE BASICS
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
MLK Day means something even more special in Atlanta, and indeed, in the South, where King and other giants of the Civil Rights Movement spent so much time fighting, writing, teaching and preaching for a better America.
Here’s a list of MLK Day events around the metro area, including parades and talks and family events. A few of note:
✊🏿 Annual Morehouse College MLK Commemoration: King’s alma mater is holding several commemorative events between now and the end of the month. That’s perfect if you didn’t have time to plan something to do in honor of the holiday, or, you know, have to work. After all, King’s legacy is alive year-round, not just a day.
☮️ Sandy Springs City Hall’s MLK Afternoon: This is a great opportunity to get the kids involved (and give you the morning to get ready, too). The family-friendly afternoon starts at 1 p.m. and will feature Civil Rights Movement-themed mural making, bookmark crafts and two screenings of the Emmy-nominated animated special “Our Friend, Martin.”
You don’t need to go out to get involved. How about revisiting and reflecting on some of King’s writings? HarperCollins has published a commemorative edition of King’s seminal “Letters from a Birmingham Jail” in honor of the occasion.
Also, here’s a good trivia question: How many times was King arrested while practicing civil disobedience? I’ll put the answer at the end of the newsletter.
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MLK DAY SPOTLIGHT: THE ASO AT EBENEZER
Credit: Photo courtesy of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra/Rand Lines
Credit: Photo courtesy of Atlanta Symphony Orchestra/Rand Lines
Many eyes are turned today to Ebenezer Baptist Church, the iconic parish in Sweet Auburn not far from King’s boyhood home where King and his father both preached.
Earlier this month, the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra revived the organization’s long-running King Celebration concert at the site. Joined by members of Ebenezer’s choir, the ASO performed an array of gospel and spiritual works, including “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” which is considered the Black National Anthem.
The event also featured Atlanta area composers, including Joel Thompson, whose work “An Act of Resistance” grapples with an epidemic of anger. I was fortunate enough to speak to Thompson a few years ago about his choral piece, “Seven Last Words of the Unarmed,” a haunting work that has proved even more significant since we talked in the summer of 2020.
I remember our conversation very well because Thompson, reserved and circumspect, was one of those people who immediately strikes you as remarkable. I remember how keenly he observed his own reactions to injustice and pain, and how he used his vast intertextual knowledge of historical and sacred works to make music that reaches out, grabs you by the shoulders and won’t let you look away.
🔎 Read more about the ASO’s special at Ebenezer Baptist here. You can stream the concert on-demand beginning at 10 a.m. today at EbenezerATL.org, ASO.org and GPB.org. WABE 90.1 will also air an hourlong program at 8 p.m. Monday.
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THE 60TH PRESIDENTIAL INAUGURATION: THE BASICS
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
Donald Trump will be sworn in as the United States’ 47th President around noon today in Washington, D.C. Due to frigid cold temperatures, the ceremony will be held inside the U.S. Capitol Rotunda, the heart at the heart of the nation. Expect a very pared-down crowd, since the venue can only hold a cozy 600 people.
In addition to lawmakers, Supreme Court justices and members of his family, the president-elect has invited several powerful associates to join him for the event. Tesla and X owner Elon Musk was invited to the dais along with Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman.
🎤 Carrie Underwood and the Village People are just some of the big musical guests contributing to the celebration. Georgia country titan Jason Aldean will also perform at one of the D.C.-area inaugural balls.
Argentina’s president Javier Milei, Italy’s premier Giorgia Meloni, Ecuadorean President Daniel Noboa and Paraguayan President Santiago Peña have all indicated they will attend Trump’s inauguration. Chinese President Xi Jinping was also invited. He will not attend, sending Vice President Han Zheng as his special representative.
🔎 What to watch for at Trump’s inaugural festivities
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INAUGURATION SPOTLIGHT: GEORGIA STATE OF MIND
Here in Georgia, leaders from both parties, local officials and law enforcement agencies are getting ready for the first days of Trump’s second time in office. Those days could include the beginning of a large-scale mass deportation effort and other huge immigration policy changes, as well as possible pardons for some of the roughly 1,600 people charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. Trump has also promised to slash business regulations and scale back green energy incentives that have built up Georgia’s electric vehicle industry.
Also, TikTok restored service in the U.S. after going dark over the weekend, based on the anticipation of executive orders from Trump. So we’ll see what happens next with that!
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COLLEGE FOOTBALL PLAYOFF NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: THE BASICS
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
The Notre Dame Fighting Irish and the Ohio State Buckeyes will meet at 7:30 p.m. today in the comforting metal embrace of Mercedes-Benz Stadium for the College Football Playoff National Championship Game. (I have to take a breather every time I type out that absurdly long title.) If you’re going to the game, a few things to know:
✔️ Review the clear bag policy
✔️ Have your tickets ready on your phone
✔️ Take MARTA or rideshare or … well if you haven’t figured out parking by now you’re on your own
It’s all here in our CFP National Championship guide.
Safety alert: The Atlanta Police Department and other law enforcement and security agencies, along with city leaders, have been working hard to make sure everything is safe at the game, especially after the attack in New Orleans on Jan 1. It’ll be all hands on deck, and they’re asking everyone in the area to adopt a “see something, say something” mindset.
Oh, also, it is going to be so cold. Like, windchill-at-zero cold. Let’s blame this on all of the Ohio- and Indiana-based people in town.
Bottom line: If you don’t need to be downtown, don’t go downtown. Stay warm, stay safe, stay out of the way.
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CFP CHAMPIONSHIP SPOTLIGHT: THEY CAME FROM THE NORTH
Listen, as Georgians and SEC fans/SEC-adjacent fans, do we love that these are the two teams left standing in the end? We can’t honestly say we do. But we’re all hoping for a good show. The AJC sports folks have put together a game-by-game look on how each team earned the privilege of meeting in our fair city this season.
🍀 Everything to know about Notre Dame before the championship
🌰 Everything to know about Ohio State before the championship
I want our young people to be able to look at me and say, ‘Hey, if I want to be the head coach at Notre Dame — dang it — if I work hard enough and do the right things, I've got a chance to do it because look at my head coach.
As one of college football’s few Black coaches, Marcus Freeman says he definitely recognizes the significance of playing in a championship in Atlanta on MLK Day.
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ONE MORE THING
Thirty. Yes, King was arrested 30 times as he engaged in civil disobedience. It’s one of many things you may not know about King, a man who in near-universal admiration is too often reduced to pretty words and powerful images. Today is a day to learn something new — about him, our country or ourselves (or college football ... but that’s probably not as important).
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Thanks for reading to the very bottom of A.M. ATL. Questions, comments, ideas? Contact me at tellus@ajc.com.
Until next time.
