(St. Mary's City, MD) December 21, 2009- The sixth annual Southern Maryland Martin Luther King, Jr. Prayer Breakfast will be held Monday, January 18, 2010, in the Great Room of St. Mary's College of Maryland's (SMCM) Campus Center. A full breakfast will be served, starting at 7 a.m. and the program begins at 8 a.m.  Tickets are $7 and are available at the door. Early arrival is recommended as space is limited; advanced registration is not required.  For more information, contact Marc Apter at 301-904-3690.

This year's prayer breakfast features William Yoast, a high school football coach featured in the 2000 blockbuster hit, "Remember the Titans," starring Denzel Washington.  Yoast, who is white, served as assistant coach alongside head coach Herman Boone, who is black, in the early 1970s when T.C. Williams High School, in Northern Virginia, was first integrated. 

The event will also feature guest speaker John W. Franklin, the associate director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, set to open in 2015.  Franklin has worked on African American, African, and African Diaspora programs for the past 22 years at the Smithsonian.  He serves on the boards of the Reginald Lewis Maryland Museum of African American History and Culture.  He co-authored a book on the Civil-War era with his father, well-known African American historian John Hope Franklin.

Also featured will be musical performances by the St. Peter Claver Catholic Church Gospel Choir and the First Missionary Baptist Church of Lexington Park Youth Choir. Masters of ceremony for the event are SMCM Black Student Union President Darren McCutchen ('10), of Bowie, Maryland, and Jim Hanley, chair of the St. Mary's County Human Relations Commission.  Lt. Christiliene Whalen, Patuxent River Naval Base chaplain, will deliver the invocation and benediction.  Whalen is a native of St. Mary's County, having graduated from Great Mills High School and then Harvard University. 

St. Mary's College is also accepting nominations for the first MLK Jr. "Realizing the Dream" awards. The awards will honor four St. Mary's County residents who embody exemplary character as described in King's "I Have a Dream" speech, and who have made significant contributions to their communities.  One St. Mary's County adult male and female, and one male and female student grades six through 12 will be selected.  A $100 award and a plaque will be presented to the winners during the Prayer Breakfast. Contact Katie Lanham at 240-895-4191 for nomination information.  Deadline is January 8, 2010, and honorees will be notified soon after.  For more information, visit www.smcm.edu.

St. Mary's College of Maryland, designated the Maryland state honors college in 1992, is ranked one of the best liberal arts schools in the nation by U.S. News & World Report, Kiplinger's, and The Princeton Review. Founded in 1840 as Maryland's "monument school" commemorating the state's first capital, SMCM is the state's only public honors college, offering "an Ivy-level College with a public-school price tag" (Newsweek).

Some 2,000 students attend the college, which has the highest graduation rate for all Maryland public colleges and universities, and an SAT average for student admissions of 1848. The school's waterfront campus along the St. Mary's River in Southern Maryland is home to the 2009 National Intercollegiate Sailing Association Co-ed champions.

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Photo #1: The sixth annual Southern Maryland Martin Luther King, Jr. Prayer Breakfast will be held Monday, January 18, 2010, in the Great Room of St. Mary's College of Maryland's (SMCM) Campus Center. A full breakfast will be served, starting at 7 a.m. and the program begins at 8 a.m.  Tickets are $7 and are available at the door. Early arrival is recommended as space is limited; advanced registration is not required.  For more information, contact Marc Apter at 301-904-3690.

Photo #2: William Yoast will speak at the 2010 Southern Maryland Martin Luther King, Jr. Prayer Breakfast.  Yoast was one of the high school football coaches featured in the 2000 blockbuster hit, "Remember the Titans," starring Denzel Washington.  Yoast, who is white, served as assistant coach alongside head coach Herman Boone, who is black, in the early 1970s when T.C. Williams High School, in Northern Virginia, was first integrated.