[01/20/02]A breakfast, an afternoon program and an evening torch-lighting are scheduled for Monday in Vicksburg in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Breakfast Banquet, sponsored annually by the local alumni chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, is set for 8 a.m. at the Vicksburg Convention Center.

Frank Melton, chief executive officer of Jackson’s WLBT-3 TV is scheduled to speak. The public is invited and may purchase tickets for $15 each. Contacts are Dr. John Walls, 634-6349; James Giles, 630-3021; and Ben Brown, 638-9047. A limited number of tickets will be available at the door, Giles said.

The breakfast benefits the chapter, which offers scholarships to students in 7th and 8th grades and high-school seniors.

“Even though this is a day off, we would like for the public to consider it a day on’ by attending this event in the name of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” Giles said.

At 1 p.m., a birthday-celebration program of prayer, songs and inspirational messages is set for City Auditorium. The speaker will be Vicksburg Police Chief Tommy Moffett, and he will be introduced by Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace.

The program is the 16th annual to be sponsored by the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Day Committee, the Mississippi Chapter of Blacks in Government and the Vicksburg branch of the NAACP, said Bobbie Bingham Morrow, co-chair of the committee and first vice president of the other two sponsoring organizations. Admission is free.

Also on the program are Nathaniel Williams and the Mighty Train of Gospel and the NAACP youth choir. Girls’ clubs sponsored by local chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha and Delta Sigma Theta Sororities are scheduled to participate.

The event has had major influence in recent years from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ three Vicksburg installations, the Mississippi Valley Division, the Vicksburg District and the Engineering

Research and Development Center, Morrow said. The commandants of all three branches are scheduled to deliver greetings.

The program’s theme is “Remember, Celebrate, Act; A Day On Not a Day Off,” and its sub theme is “The Dream Challenged by Reality.”

Closing out the day’s events, at 5:30 p.m. will again be a torch-lighting at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Morrow said. It is free and open to the public.