The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. birthday observance Annual Commemorative Service, a major event during the King Week celebration, scheduled for Monday, January 21, will feature keynote speaker the Reverend Samuel Rodriguez, President of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference (NHCLC), who King Center CEO, Elder Bernice A. King, called “an electrifying orator” and “one of the most dynamic and inspiring proponents of the social gospel in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr.”

Reverend Rodriguez’s address will mark the first time a Latino leader serves as the keynote speaker for the Commemorative Service, which is the nation’s ‘flagship’ ecumenical religious observance on the MLK holiday.  Rev. Rodriguez had been asked by the Congressional Inaugural Committee to participate in President Obama’s inaugural activities, yet his commitment to this historic keynote address precludes his participation.

Rev. Rodriguez, President of the NHCLC, the nation’s largest Christian Hispanic organization, said, “I am honored by the gracious invitation to be the first Latino Keynote speaker. I believe in the dream of Dr. King. I believe there is still work to be done. I celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. King who inspired me and inspired this nation. We stand at the edge of a new civil rights movement in America—a movement committed to righteousness and justice—one that is neither blue or red but the Lamb’s Agenda—a movement where our communities will come together reconciling the vertical and horizontal planes of the Christian message via Billy Graham’s message of salvation through Christ and the dream of this great leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, and his march for justice.”

The 2013 observance of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., beginning a year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.