Birmingham – The keynote speaker for today's King Day Unity Breakfast in Birmingham is a Kansas native and the daughter of Mexican immigrants.
Organizers say they chose Janet Murguia, the president and chief executive officer of the National Council of La Raza, saying Murguia brings a message of unity and denouncing what she said is a resurgence of hate speech in the immigration debate.
For the first time in more than two decades, the keynote speaker for the Unity Breakfast is not a white person or a black person.
Isabel Rubio, executive director of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama, an affiliate of La Raza, says having Murguia on the program signals a recognition of the growing population of Spanish-speaking people in Alabama and a continuation of King's dream.
The 7 a.m. breakfast at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex is sponsored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Metro Birmingham NAACP, the National Conference for Community and Justice, the Community Affairs Committee of Operation New Birmingham, and Greater Birmingham Ministries.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)