Maria A. Ellis leads The Sheldon All-Star Chorus in a rousing musical performance during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance on Monday at the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center. (Photos by Derik Holtmann)

Maria A. Ellis clapped her hands and stomped her feet as the drumbeat began early Monday afternoon in the Blanche M. Touhill Performing Arts Center.

At her direction, the voices of The Sheldon All-Star Chorus and Voices of Jubilation community gospel choir suddenly started ringing out through the Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall.

“Clap your hands, all ye people, shout unto God with the voice of triumph,” they sang.

If the more than 500 people in attendance at the University of Missouri–St. Louis’ annual Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance didn’t already know it, that moment made clear that this was a day of celebration.

The university community joined with many of its neighbors in gladness and gratitude while remembering and honoring the life and legacy of the Civil Rights Era icon in a tradition that began at UMSL in 1988. This year’s theme was “The Beloved Community – A Place Where All Can Thrive.”

Fredrika Newton, the co-founder Huey P. Newton Foundation, delivers the keynote address during Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance. Newton discussed the often-overlooked work members of the Black Panther Party did to care for their community through the establishment of 65 Community Survival Programs.

“The end is reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved community,” King famously said during a speech at the Montgomery Improvement Association’s Institute on Nonviolence and Social Change in December 1956. “It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform opposers into friends. It is this type of understanding goodwill that will transform the deep gloom of the old age into the exuberant gladness of the new age. It is this love which will bring about miracles in the hearts of men.”

Monday’s event paid special attention to King’s vision of a community free from poverty, hunger and hate.

Fredrika Newton, the widow of Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton and the president and co-founder of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation, delivered the keynote address. In it, she described the work the Black-empowerment organization’s members did to care for those in their community through its 65 Community Survival Programs. They included free breakfast programs, medical clinics, legal aid, drug and alcohol awareness programs, free clothing, transportation and a number of other community needs.

UMSL alum Tierra Parks, an on-air radio personality at local R&B station KFUN (96.3 FM), and the community program manager for the Center of Community Arts, served as the mistress of ceremonies for the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Observance.

Newton said this work was all but ignored in contemporary news coverage of Black Panther Party, which from its founding in 1966 was portrayed as a militant group and treated as enemy of the United States by the FBI.

“The media always showed images of Black men carrying guns to form a narrative of a panther,” Newton said. “But the truth is the party was made up of young Black men and women who donned aprons and hair nets to make and serve breakfast every morning. They wore lab coats in the health clinics to provide free sickle cell testing and health care. They drove ambulances to transport people to hospitals. They stood in classrooms and daycare facilities with books and toys in hand.”

Huey P. Newton was murdered in Oakland, California, in 1989. In 1995, Frederika Newton joined David Hilliard, the former chief of staff for the Black Panther Party, in establishing the Huey P. Newton Foundation with a mission to preserve and promulgate the history, ideals and legacy of Newton and the Panthers. Over the years, the foundation has developed and distributed educational materials and maintained and exhibited historical archives about the party. Last year, it opened the Black Panther Party Museum in Oakland.

Grace Desjardins, Jacob Perez and Kavion Norman were honored as the 2025 recipients of the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship for their academic excellence and work in the community.

“This has given us a new avenue to explore and interpret this history through the stories and eyes and minds of the people who lived it,” Newton said.

Monday’s event was also a chance to recognize three UMSL students for their work to better their own communities. Senior political science major Grace Desjardins, junior computer science major Kavion Norman and senior psychology major Jacob Perez were each honored as 2025 recipients of the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship, a $1,000 scholarship bestowed on students who exemplify academic excellence and service to the community.

The audience was also treated to a vocal performance from UMSL alum Alayna Epps, a young artist and the arts administration fellow with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra’s IN UNISON Chorus. She sang “My Soul’s Been Anchored In the Lord,” while accompanied by an SLSO string quintet in a performance that recalled the late Marian Anderson singing the same song in an open-air concert from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939 after the Daughters of the American Revolution barred her from performing for an integrated audience in Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C.

UMSL alumn Alayna Epps performed “My Soul’s Been Anchored In the Lord” with a quintet from the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Myron Burr, the program manager for strategic initiatives at UMSL who helped organize the holiday observance, called Anderson’s performance, “a symbol of dignity and resistance, a statement that artistry, humanity and justice cannot be confined by the walls of bigotry.” King, 10 years old at the time, was among the millions who listened to Anderson’s concert on the radio.

Later, Ellis, an UMSL alum and the founder of Girl Conductor, led the All-Star Chorus through performances of the “Star-Spangled Banner”; “Make Them Hear You,” from the film “Ragtime”; and Robert T. Gibson’s “Dance!” sung a cappella with the student performers providing vocal percussion while carrying out a step routine.

As is custom, the holiday observance closed with an up-tempo rendition of “We Shall Overcome.”