PHOTOS: Exciting turnout at MLK Day Breakfast held at BHS

Pictures by Owen Lentner, Editor-in-Chief

The 41st annual MLK Day Breakfast was held at Branford High School on Jan 19. The main speaker, Attorney Preston Tisdale, addressed the respectable crowd of spectators in attendance.

His speech was well received by guests at the event, with many citing their intent to return next year.

“[I came because] I’m retired; I have plenty of free time now,” Lawrence Rooney, an attendee, said to The Buzz. “I saw an advertisement in the newspaper and I said this looks like a neat thing to go [to].”

“[Dr. King] is an American hero, without a doubt. Right up there with George Washington,” he added.

“It’s important to keep Martin Luther King’s vision alive, especially with the stuff going on today,” said Toni Crowell-Petrungaro, the Director for Child Life at Yale New Haven Pediatric Hospital.

“There [have been] so many strides made for human rights and civil rights; when it seems like we’re going backwards it’s important to keep Dr. King’s saying in mind: ‘Keep moving forward no matter what,'” she said.

Before Tisdale’s speach, the event featured a performance from the BHS Music Makers Choir after the opening blessing and speeches.

After the performance, a full breakfast, prepared by the Cooking for a Cause Club, was served.

The event also featured speeches by the two winners of the MLK Day poetry contest. Both BHS students – Gabby Silva and Beulah Anigekwu – shared their poems at the event. To read their poems, click here.

Around an hour into the event, Preston Tisdale, the event’s keynote speaker, was guided to the podium by the applause of the nearly 300 people in attendance.

“I had known that this was quite the event [in years prior] – so well attended, so much good energy. I don’t really care about the numbers as much as I care about the intent, the energy; I’ve encountered nothing but great spirit here (at BHS),” Tisdale said in an interview with The Buzz.

“[Dr. King] was incredibly courageous; he preached a whole gospel of love and non-violence and he stuck to that. When he talked about justice, he talked about justice for everybody,” he added.

“Of course Black Americans were the ones getting hit the hardest at that time, but he talked about everyone around the world… justice everywhere. He was so inspiring.”

“I think your generation (Gen Z), stands to be even more [involved] in activism. You’re seeing young leaders and politicians come from the people who have experienced [racism / civil rights abuses.] And I’m very proud of what they’re doing,” Tisdale concluded.

While formal plans are yet to be made, many speculate the district will again host the MLK Breakfast next year, continuing almost a decade-long tradition of the event being held at the high school.