The Dream Continues: 32nd Annual Martin Luther King Breakfast Celebrates 5000 Role Models of Excellence

The Dream Continues: 32nd Annual Martin Luther King Breakfast Celebrates 5000 Role Models of Excellence

By The Culture

The 32nd Annual Martin Luther King Breakfast supporting the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project brought together a crowd of over 1,000 attendees on Saturday, January 18, at the Miami Beach Convention Center. This inspiring event celebrated a legacy of mentorship, educational opportunity, and community impact, all while raising crucial funds for the organization’s scholarship program.

Founded in 1993 by Congresswoman Frederica S. Wilson while serving on the Miami-Dade County School Board, the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project was established to combat the systemic challenges young minority boys faced. Seeing a troubling trend of incarceration, drug involvement, and school dropouts among this demographic, Wilson rallied the community to mentor “at-risk” youth. Initially called the 500 African American Male Role Models of Excellence, the program has since grown exponentially, now mentoring thousands of young men and preparing them for successful futures.

“If every boy in America was a part of the 5000 Role Models of Excellence, what a difference it would make, ” Congresswoman Wilson explained to the sea of attendees. “It would change the fabric of this nation. There would be no school shootings, no lust for drugs, no love for weapons, and no need for prisons because our nation would undergo a profound transformation. There would be respect for the law, no dropouts, discipline in every classroom, high academic standards, increased college enrollment, and we would put the prison industrial complex out of business. That is my dream on this journey. Join me on saving these boys.”

The breakfast’s proceeds will directly benefit the program’s scholarship fund, ensuring these young men can pursue higher education. Attendees were thrilled to learn that the 2024 graduating class of the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project have all been awarded full-ride scholarships to college, a testament to the program’s transformative impact.

The event served as a reminder of the collective power of a community dedicated to uplifting its youth. From its humble beginnings, the program has grown into a national model for mentorship, education, and empowerment. As the breakfast concluded, attendees left with a renewed sense of purpose, inspired to continue the work of ensuring that every child, regardless of circumstance, has the chance to succeed.

The 32nd Annual Martin Luther King Breakfast not only celebrated progress but also galvanized ongoing support for an organization that has been changing lives for over three decades.

The keynote speaker for this year’s breakfast was U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. In a powerful address, Jeffries reflected on Dr. King’s enduring legacy of justice and equality while emphasizing his disappointment in his pastoral opportunity in which he didn’t get the job in Tennessee but got the opportunity in Alabama.  

Had King gotten the pastoral opening in Tennessee, he would have never been subject to the ills of Jim Crow in Alabama.  Never led the Montgomery bus boycott.  Never been the Civil Rights Leader that we know him to be.  Jeffries said, “You know this thing with life is that disappointment may strike. Sometimes it may strike unexpectedly. You almost have to expect that the unexpected will happen. But when disappointment strikes, one of the things I’ve learned throughout life is that you have to at all times keep the faith and it will work out for you in the end.”

His words resonated with attendees, reinforcing the critical mission of the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project. “What Dr. King’s journey would say to us is that you’ve got to dismiss the doubters and keep marching towards your dream, dismiss the doubters, and keep marching towards your dream.