At the 2010 Martin Luther King Prayer Breakfast, January 16 in the Grand Ballroom of the Grove Park Inn.

by Moe White

The breakfast attracts more than one thousand guests every January and will include music by the Celebration Choir, from Glade Creek Baptist Church in Hendersonville, and the presentation of the 2010 Martin Luther King Award. The  breakfast is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, January 16.

Oralene Simmons, chair of the Martin Luther King Association of Asheville and Buncombe County, noted that Pitts continues a long line of prominent guest speakers for the breakfast. “Leonard Pitts joins an illustrious company that includes Juan Williams of National Public Radio, Congresswoman Shirley Chisolm of New York, civil rights leader Dr. Bernard Lafayette, the chairwoman of the US Civil Rights Commission, Dr. Mary Frances Berry, and many others. We’re both honored and proud that a writer of his stature will address our 29th breakfast.”

Pitts joined the Miami Herald in 1991 as its pop music critic and has written his nationally syndicated column since 1994.

Along with numerous other awards [see below], in 2004 he was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. His column about the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, “We’ll Go Forward From This Moment,” generated more than 30,000 emails and has been set to music, reprinted as posters, read on television, and quoted as part of the Democratic Party’s weekly radio address. His book, Becoming Dad: Black Men and the Journey to Fatherhood, was released in May 1999 and reissued in paperback in 2006. In March 2009 he published his first novel, Before I Forget.

Immediately following the prayer breakfast, Mr. Pitts will read from and autograph copies of his books. Asheville’s Malaprop’s Bookstore is the bookseller for the book signing, which will be held in the Hoover room adjacent to the ballroom. Pitts will later visit Malaprop’s for a public reading and book signing at 2:00 p.m.

The 2010 Prayer Breakfast begins at 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, January 16. For more information please call (828) 281-1624.
For additional information about ticket availability call (828) 335-6896. Malaprop’s Bookstore and Café is located at 55 Haywood Street (on the web at www.malaprop’s.com ).