On Monday, January 16, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz and Deputy Borough President Sandra Chapman honored the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the 26th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration at the Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM). The event, presented by BP Markowitz, BAM, and Medgar Evers College of The City University of New York, is New York City’s largest public celebration in honor of the slain civil rights leader.

“When we look at what is going on in our country—the near impossible job that our president has undertaken, the increased hardships of the American worker and the increase in poverty—we realize that Dr. King’s dream has yet to be fully realized,” BP Markowitz told the gathering. “We still have work to do. When everyone who wants a job is trained for and can get a job; when kids who aspire to succeed is the norm and not the exception; when schools no longer need metal detectors; when healthcare for all is a right and not a privilege—that’s when we have real freedom. So how do we get there from here? As Dr. King so eloquently said on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963: ‘We cannot march alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back.’”