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1993.01.14 :  Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration Program

Contact: Moses J. Newson (202) 690-6343       
January 14, 1993

       HHS Secretary Louis W. Sullivan, M.D., today announced
that the Rev. Grainger Browning Jr., pastor of the Ebenezer AME
Church of Fort Washington, Md., will speak for the annual Martin
Luther King Jr. commemorative program. 
       The program, sponsored by the Department of Health and
Human Services, Department of Education, U.S. Information Agency
and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, will be held
Wednesday, Jan. 27 at 10 a.m. in the Great Hall of the Humphrey
Building, 200 Independence Ave. S.W.
       Music will be provided by the Voices of Ebenezer, under
the direction of the Rev. Donald Vails of the Ebenezer AME
Church.
       The theme of this year's observance is "Living the Dream--
Let Freedom Ring; Building Bridges of Understanding."
       It marks the 63rd anniversary of the slain (1968) civil
rights leader's birth, who in 1964 was awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize.  Martin Luther King Day was first observed officially as a
federal holiday Jan. 20, 1986.
       Dr. Browning, a native of Cambridge, Mass., has been
pastor of the 6,000-member Ebenezer AME Church since 1983. 
Before that he served on the ministerial staffs of the St. Paul
AME Church,
Cambridge, Mass., and the Hemingway Memorial AME Church, Chapel
Oaks, Md.
        He received a bachelor of science degree from Hampton
Institute in 1974; the master of divinity degree in 1983 from the
Howard University Divinity School; and the doctor of divinity in
1990 from the Payne Theological Seminary, Wilberforce, Ohio.
       Dr. Browning has been active in community, educational,
charity and civil rights work, along with his religious
ministries.
       Others participating on the program include Eugene Kinlow,
HHS deputy assistant secretary for personnel administration; and
the Rev. Weldon G. Thomas, pastor of the St. John CME Church,
Washington D.C.

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