San Jose’s MLK Day luncheon puts a message into action

You would believe the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is alive and well in San Jose if you were among the crowd of about 650 people who attended the 43rd annual MLK Day luncheon, held by the African American Community Services Agency on Monday.

“It has been three years since we all had the opportunity for fellowship on such an auspicious occasion,” said Erika Albury, an AACSA board member and co-chair of the luncheon with Lennies Gutierrez. “But the great thing is that we are all here today and we are here to celebrate the life, legacy and dream of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”

It was a successful comeback for the event at the Holiday Inn on North First Street, which had been held virtually since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. There were performances by spoken-word poet Prentice Powell, a stirring rendition of the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” by Victoria Thúy Vi McDowell, and portraits painted on stage by celebrated San Jose teen artist Tyler Gordon and his mother, Nicole Kindle.

AACSA Board Chair Daric Jackson presented awards to Huy Tran of the Justice at Work Law Group, Antoinette Battiste of Educational Pathways, Kenan Moos and Kiyoshi Taylor of Justice Vanguard and Rabbi Laurie Hanh Harper. And that was all before the big event, a powerful keynote by political strategist and commentator Symone Sanders.

As the first major event of the new year in San Jose, the luncheon was packed with elected officials — most toting commendations and resolutions — including new San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors President Susan Ellenberg,  State Sen. Dave Cortese and Assemblyman Ash Kalra. But you know who else showed up? Big name corporations and teams.

Amazon came on board as the luncheon’s presenting sponsor, joining fellow sponsors HP, Alaska Airlines, the Golden State Warriors, Destination:Home, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and First 5 Santa Clara County.  AACSA Executive Director Milan Balinton called out the San Francisco 49ers for a $100,000 grant to its Leadership Academy and highlighted more support for the program from Google, Alaska Airlines and Comcast.

Remembering the AACSA of a dozen years ago when it had just 1½ staff members and “really no budget,” Balinton said, “To say these numbers today is a vision that Dr. King had, that I had to catch on to, to create a flame to get other people to come together that now shows up in this room with all of you.”

COMMUNITY TRIBUTE: San Jose’s Oak Grove School District became something of a passion for Yvonne Cook, who died Dec. 19 at age 74. She was part of the home and school club of her children’s elementary school in South San Jose, but later served on the district’s advisory committee and was elected to its board, where she served from 1989 to 2012 — including four stints as board president.

Her dedication was recognized in her final year on the board. The board meeting room at the district’s headquarters, 6578 Santa Teresa Blvd., was named in her honor. And that’s where her celebration of life will be held Jan. 21 at 2 p.m. Attendees are asked to wear something in Cook’s favorite color — red — and donations can be made to the Yvonne Cook Scholarship Fund, which has been established with the East Side Education Foundation to benefit students graduating from Santa Teresa, Oak Grove and Andrew Hill high schools. Find out more at www.eastside-fund.org/cook_scholarship.

WEATHERING CHANGE: The Cupertino Library Foundation had planned a pretty topical event scheduled for Jan. 18 with reps from Valley Water talking about the region’s drought emergency and the local water supply outlook, given that the period from January to November of 2022 had been the second driest year in the past 128 for Santa Clara County.

Well, things have changed a bit in the past two months, so the topic of the 7 p.m. discussion at the Cupertino Library on Torre Avenue has rolled with the tides. “In light of recent flooding in the Bay Area, discussion on flood management has been added to the agenda,” an email sent Tuesday morning read.