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Eighteen of Towers High’s Marching Titans are go ing to London and Paris to perform, learn and see the sights. 6
Lithonia teen Christopher Ballenger (left) won a statewide technology com petition with an app he created for CrossRoads News. 7
Pioneering travel plans
Award-winning tech
Let’s Keep DeKalb Peachy Clean Please Don’t Litter Our Streets and Highways
EAST ATLANTA • DECATUR • STONE MOUNTAIN • LITHONIA • AVONDALE ESTATES • CLARKSTON • ELLENWOOD • PINE LAKE • REDAN • SCOTTDALE • TUCKER • STONECREST
Copyright © 2018 CrossroadsNews, iNC.
March 31, 2018
Volume 23, Number 48
www.crossroadsnews.com
DeKalb needs public input on new transportation study By Rosie Manins
A new transit plan for DeKalb County will be developed over the next year to improve public and general transportation services for residents, and leaders are urging civilians to give their input. The DeKalb County Master Transit Plan (MTP), with a 30-year scope, will identify how transit services in the county are working, what needs exist, how services can be improved and at what cost. Up to $1.25 million in funding has been allocated by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) to develop the plan by March 31, 2019.
“I can go all the way to Northlake Mall but I can’t even get to South DeKalb on transit. Please help us get regular transit in south DeKalb. We need it now and not in 30 years.” File
The ARC is accepting requests for proposals from prospective plan development firms before April 16. It expects to award a contract by early May. DeKalb residents will have more than 30 public meetings countywide to give input
Stephanie Johnson, Decatur resident
File
and county leaders have already started col- ing involved in the “historic” and “critical” process. lecting feedback from some residents. “Transportation is the critical issue facDeKalb CEO Michael Thurmond hosted two town halls on the transit plan in Litho- ing our county and it has been for a long nia and Brookhaven on March 26 and 28 respectively, thanking those present for bePlease see INPUT, page 3
Bells to toll for King worldwide on April 4 7:01 event to mark 50th anniversary of assassination
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., center, stands with, from left, Jesse Jackson and Ralph David Abernathy on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. on April 3, 1968, a day before he was assassinated in the same spot. Jackson and Abernathy were also with April 4 when he was shot to death.
By Jennifer Ffrench Parker
Bells will toll 39 times at 7:01 p.m. Eastern Time around the world on April 4, 2018 to mark the 50th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. At the same time, the children and granddaughter of King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, and other family members will toll a bell and lay a wreath at the crypts of their parents at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta. King, who was born Jan. 15, 1929, was slain by an assassin’s bullet on April 4, 1968 on the balcony of Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn. He was 39. Had he lived, he would have been 89 years old this year. Dr. Bernice A. King, CEO of the King Center, said that as we remember her father’s death, we must remember the purpose and power of his life. “Although this day is challenging for our family Bernice King and for many around the world, I encourage you to hope today and to hope always,” she said. In DeKalb County, elected officials and others will make a pilgrimage to the top of Stone Mountain to remember King. The Bell Ringing Ceremony, hosted by Sen. Emanuel Jones (D–Decatur) and the Martin Luther King Jr. Advisory Council, will commemorate King’s life and service. The noon to 2 p.m. ceremony is open to the public, and several state department heads and other leaders from across Georgia have been invited. County CEO Michael Thurmond, who will deliver the keynote speech at the ceremo-
AP Photo/Charles Kelly
ny, said that King’s death 50 years ago inspired him to become involved. “I remember watching the black and white TV and I was angry,” said Thurmond, the son of sharecroppers who grew up poor in Clark County, M. Thurmond Ga. Thurmond, who was 15 years old when King was murdered, said King’s death was not unexpected “because so many people were being murdered. Among them Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, Lemuel Penn, the three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, Michael “Mickey” Schwerner, and James
Chaney, who disappeared in Mississippi, and the four little black girls, Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson and Carol Denise McNair, who died in the 16th Street Church bombing.” “There was just random ongoing violence,” Thurmond recalled. “I was just basically angry that [King] had been murdered and I wanted to do something to seek justice. I just knew I had to do something with my life.” That something manifested itself in public service, and by the time he was 29 years old, Thurmond sought election to the Georgia House. He didn’t win on his first try, but he kept at it. Looking back over the last five decades,
Thurmond says that tremendous progress has been made because of the sacrifices of King and thousands of others who fought in the civil rights movement. “But there is still so much to be done,” he said March 29. “Dr. King’s life and sacrifice transform America and opened opportunities for people of color and in that spirit, we must continue the work he started and thank God for him and those who worked with him.” Teresa Hardy, president of the DeKalb NAACP, will also make the trip to the top of Stone Mountain for the bell-ringing ceremony. She was born in 1972 – four years Please see KING, page 5