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Man’amko invited to MLK Day event
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Posted on Jan 12 2009
The committee organizing this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day has invited the islands’ elderly population to join them in the commemoration of the event.
The invitation is significant in that the keynote speaker for the event, MarshaRose Joyner, was on Saipan as an 8-year old girl during the closing years of World War II from 1946 to 1949.
Despite the turbulent and chaotic events of that period, Joyner has fond memories of climbing the fence around the Camp Susupe Detention Center, and sneaking in to play with the children living within the compound, according to the African-American Cultural Preservation Committee Inc.
Joyner will share her unique memories and perspectives of that period of time.
“It’s rare to find individual service members who were stationed here during that period to tell their story. It’s rarer still to find entire families. So to have the perspective of a civilian dependent who is also African-American, and who actually spent time inside the camp, is quite unique,” said committee president Joe Hill.
Joyner’s father and uncles who were stationed on Saipan from approximately 1946 to 1949 were Marshall Hood, Ernest Hood and Orestes Hood.
“We are extending the call to come forward to anyone within the CNMI who may have met, known of, or interacted with the Hood family, or MarshaRose during that time,” Hill said.
The organizers also invited the man’amko to participate in the mini-march through Garapan, and to attend the public forum and enjoy Joyner’s keynote address on Monday, Jan. 19, 2009. They said there will be opportunities during the week of the event to meet and speak directly and informally with Joyner.
Monday, Jan. 19, 2009, marks the third official commemoration of Martin Luther King Day since Gov. Benigno R. Fitial signed the bill enacting Martin Luther King Jr. Day as an official CNMI holiday. [B][I](PR)[/I][/B]
