Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s message of justice and equality for all is not meant to be celebrated just one day a year in mid-January. His lessons offer us guidance all year long.

This is the mission of Prescott’s MLK Peace and Justice Committee, say founding members Jim Helbling and Robert Shegog. “A main goal of MLK Committee efforts is to become a beacon for inclusivity in our community,” Helbling writes in the committee’s fall newsletter.

To “draw the circle wider” in the Prescott community, the committee has organized four events through the year, including the annual MLK Peace and Justice March and Celebration event on January 20, which begins on the Prescott College campus, circles the courthouse plaza and ends with music and speakers at Prescott United Methodist Church.

The three additional events are spaced throughout the year. This year’s Juneteenth Legacy of Leadership program on June 22 brought five local speakers on social justice to the Prescott Public Library for a free panel discussion. Participation from the audience was significant, Shegog said, as even after the Q&A segment, “people kept talking.”

A Teen Speech Contest with the 2025 theme “Strength in Diversity” is open to students grades 7-12 with a deadline of October 15. The committee is accepting submissions of five-minute scripts with awards given for first place ($100), second place ($75) and third place ($50). The winning speech will be delivered on January 20 during the MLK program. Submissions should go to mlkcommittee24@gmail.com.

In the past Shegog has volunteered with the Bradshaw Mountain High School Connections Club to offer public-speaking opportunities for students. Representatives of Toastmasters came for four sessions during lunch periods to help students build public-speaking skills and confidence. Students participated in speech contests with prizes.

“I believe a high-school graduate is a present the school district offers the community,” Shegog said. “They need a chance to practice public speaking.”

Another event is scheduled for 3pm Sunday, November 24 at Emmanuel Lutheran Church in Prescott Valley. The Fall Choir Concert will feature four musical groups “with a nice variety of music,” Shegog said. This idea came about because four musical groups performed in this past year’s MLK celebration, extending the program to an hour and a half, which he says was too long for some. Those groups have been invited back to perform in a free public concert, with donations divided among the performing choirs. Meg Bohrman will emcee the event.

In addition to the four annual events, the committee is collaborating with the Museum of Indigenous People at two of its Powwows and on October 14 to celebrate Indigenous Peoples Day. Shegog continues to contribute to the Unity Scholarship he founded after the death of his partner in 2011, awarded to recognize community-service involvement by young people. Other ideas incubating in Helbling and Shegog’s heads are establishment of a banned-book club and compiling a directory of local businesses that are non-discriminatory and inclusive for everyone.

But the MLK Committee’s action with perhaps the broadest reach has been calling out discrimination within Prescott-area communities. This is necessary, the MLK newsletter states, not only for those experiencing oppression but to help heal the oppressor.

Helbling said a recent survey with 250 responses included 68 people who had experienced an act of discrimination in Prescott. They want to draw the attention of City leadership to this.

They wrote up and presented non-discrimination language for inclusion in the city’s proposed 2025 General Plan, and received pushback from some members of the General Plan Review Committee at its July 31 meeting. Over the objections of two members — Mary Fredrickson, who called the listing of identifying characteristics “divisive and negative sounding,” and James McCarver, who said a generalized statement without including “emotionally charged” words would be more easily accepted — the language is now part of the proposed 2025 General Plan. The 60-day public-comment period for the entire document opened September 23.

Every initiative the MLK Peace and Justice Committee undertakes is to help Prescott be a safer and more comfortable place to live, Helbling said. “We have to be present in the community, and these events are keeping us visible.”

To view a recording of the July 31 General Plan Committee meeting, during which the non-discrimination language was discussed and approved, visit the Videos section of the City of Prescott Facebook page. The pertinent clip begins at the 4:20 mark.