Journalist, Community Leader To Speak at MLK Day Community Celebration

Community leader and journalist M. Alexis Scott will provide the keynote address during the MLK Day Community Celebration hosted by the city of Sandy Springs.

The city’s annual event will start at 10 a.m. Jan. 19, 2015, in the Council Chambers at Sandy Springs City Hall. The chambers are located in Building 500 at 7840 Roswell Road.

Scott has a 40-year career as a newspaper journalist, executive and visionary community leader. She was a part of the executive team, which opened the Center for Civil and Human Rights in downtown Atlanta in 2014.

Prior to working with the Center, Scott was publisher of the Atlanta Daily World, a newspaper founded by her grandfather in 1928, becoming the nation’s first black-owned daily newspaper in the 20th century. She joined the Atlanta Daily World, following a successful 22-year career with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Cox Enterprises, where she worked her way from reporter to vice president/community affairs for the newspaper to director of diversity for Cox. Scott is regular commentator on The Georgia Gang, which airs on WAGA-TV in the metro area.

Within the nonprofit sector, Scott is a member of the board of directors of the High Museum, Atlanta Interfaith Broadcasters, the South View Preservation Board and the Dogwood City Chapter of The Links, Inc. She has served on the boards of True Colors Theatre, Atlanta Children’s Shelter, Center for the Visually Impaired, Atlanta Workforce Development Agency and the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust.

A native of Atlanta, Scott has received many honors including induction into the Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau 2014 Hospitality Hall of Fame, Atlanta Press Club Hall of Fame, Business Hall of Fame of the Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University and was the recipient of the Trailblazer Award in Honor of Coretta Scott King from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

As part of the celebration, the 2015 Humanitarian Award will be presented honoring an individual who has shown outstanding commitment to community service in Sandy Springs.

In addition, the program includes remarks from Pastor Henry Bush with Sharon Community Church, Rabbi Scott Colbert with Temple Emanu El and Reverend Michael Sullivan with Holy Innocents’ Episcopal Church. Students from North Springs Charter High School and the Spalding Charter Elementary School Choir will also participate.

The MLK Day Celebration is open to the public, and there is no charge to attend. Light refreshments will be served.

Photo credit: M. Alexis Scott/Facebook