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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nAn incredible evening honoring legacy, leadership, and service at the MLK 2nd Annual Gala. Truly grateful to recognize Sylvester Little and Latha Speed as this year\u2019s King and Queen, serving as our Grand Marshals. Two individuals who represent strength, grace, and a deep commitment to community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A sincere thank you to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commission of Lakeland and everyone who worked tirelessly to make this night so meaningful. Deep appreciation to all of the sponsors whose support makes this celebration and the MLK Parade possible:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bethel Gospel Tabernacle<\/p>\n\n\n\n Coney Funeral Parlor<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n NAACP Lakeland Branch<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n New Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Tiger Contracting<\/p>\n\n\n\n Greater Faith Christian Center Church<\/p>\n\n\n\n City of Lakeland, FL – Government<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n LakelandPD<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n McKenzie Family<\/p>\n\n\n\n This was more than a gala. It was a reminder of the responsibility we share to carry the legacy forward through action, unity, and service. I am grateful to stand alongside so many dedicated leaders and supporters in our community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n #lovelakeland<\/a>#MLKGALA<\/a>#MLKWeekend<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" By Guy LaLonde An incredible evening honoring legacy, leadership, and service at the MLK 2nd Annual Gala. Truly grateful to recognize Sylvester Little and Latha Speed as this year\u2019s King… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"12","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDFcLzYxNTQwNDgyNl83NDE2ODg4MzIzMzAyODBfMTk4MDQwMzg2OTE5NTgzODA3MF9uLndlYnA_Zml0PTc2OCUyQzEwMjQmc3NsPTEiLCJ0eHQiOiJBbiBpbmNyZWRpYmxlIGV2ZW5pbmcgaG9ub3JpbmcgbGVnYWN5LCBsZWFkZXJzaGlwLCBhbmQgc2VydmljZSBhdCB0aGUgTUxLIDJuZCBBbm51YWwgR2FsYSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.7hTMbdHE9TREO28un1cWAFhgWLIql8Fbgu4qOd11XmMMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":61180,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/615404826_741688832330280_1980403869195838070_n.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[13246,13248,13247],"class_list":["post-61179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-an-incredible-evening-honoring-legacy","tag-and-service-at-the-mlk-2nd-annual-gala","tag-leadership"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61179"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61183,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61179\/revisions\/61183"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/615442064_741689172330246_2960203547368842292_n.webp?resize=768%2C1024&ssl=1\")
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