Florida Tech to Celebrate Martin Luther King Day with Pioneer Award

MELBOURNE, FLA. — Florida Tech will celebrate the life and achievements of Martin Luther King Jr. on Wednesday, Jan. 7, at 7 p.m. on campus. The
commemoration, hosted by Alumni Affairs and the Department of Humanities and Communication, will take place in the Denius Student Center’s John and Martha
Hartley Room on the second floor.

Winston Scott, dean of the Florida Tech College of Aeronautics, will deliver the keynote address and speak on the life and work of the Rev. Martin Luther
King Jr.

Weona Cleveland and Rev. Henry R. Jackson Sr. will be honored at the commemoration with the Julius Montgomery Pioneer Award.

Cleveland worked as a journalist for 15 years for the Melbourne Times and Florida Today. During the celebration of Melbourne’s centennial in 1980 a
collection of her previously published stories of local history was published in book form, Melbourne – A Century of Memories. In 1994, when the Melbourne
Times celebrated its 100th anniversary, the Gannet Company published a collection of her historical stories in book form, Crossroad Towns Remembered.

For 20 years, following her retirement in 1987, she continued to write a column geared toward local Brevard County history. Cleveland has also
conducted Melbourne Chamber of Commerce historical walking tours in the Melbourne and Eau Gallie sections of the city.

Rev. Henry R. Jackson Sr. is a former president of the Melbourne Branch of the NAACP. In the 1960s, he was a key activist in integrating Melbourne public
parks, a shopping center, golf course and theater. Owner of Henry R. Jackson Sr. Real Estate Agency and a member of the National and Florida Associations
of Realtors, Jackson also spent 33 years in the U.S. Air Force.

He was ordained an itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in 1982 and appointed to his first assignment at the Bethel AME Church
in Fellsmere, Fla. He is currently senior pastor of Bethel AME Church and CEO of Bethel Community Development Inc. in Pompano Beach, Fla. In 2004 Jackson
received an Honorary Doctorate of Religious Philosophy in Theology degree from Trinity Theological Seminary of South Florida.

Melbourne resident Julius Montgomery was one of Florida Tech’s first African American students. An associate of Florida Tech founder, Dr. Jerry Keuper,
Montgomery was a technician and co-worker of Keuper’s at RCA at Cape Canaveral in the late 1950s.

The public is welcome to attend this presentation of short lectures, which will be followed by light refreshments. Please RSVP to Tama Johnson at (321)
674-6152 or johnsont@fit.edu.