The Martin Luther King holiday celebrations will have a special significance this year, falling the day before the Inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation's first black president.

The first-ever Martin Luther King Jr. memorial breakfast kicks off the festivities at 8 a.m. Saturday at the Days Inn in Southern Pines.

The annual memorial observance service will be held at 7 p.m. Sunday in H.A. Wilson Auditorium at Southern Pines Primary School. The program features Kenneth Capel as the guest speaker. It will also include musical performances by several choirs, a candlelight vigil and a reading of "Impossible Dream."

An offering will benefit Habitat for Humanity. Refreshments will be served after the event in the cafeteria.

Anyone who needs more information on the observance can call the Rev. Joseph Thompson, program director, at 949-7272.

The celebration continues Monday with the annual Martin Luther King Day March, which starts at 11 a.m. Participants are asked to meet on the corner of East Broad Street and New York Avenue at the Downtown Southern Pines Park. As in past years, the march will proceed along Broad Street into downtown Southern Pines, cross the railroad tracks and proceed back up Broad and turn right onto Pennsylvania Avenue. The march will travel up Pennsylvania and end at Southern Pines Primary.

Following the march, a Martin Luther King Day observance program will be presented by the Moore County Chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in the Southern Pines Primary School auditorium.

"The public is invited to attend this event to celebrate the life of the dreamer, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," said O'Linda Gillis, the president of the Moore County NAACP.

Juanessa Lucas, a member of Kingdom Minded Ministries International and a 1999 graduate of Pinecrest High School, will be the guest speaker. Her speech will be entitled, "What would Martin Luther King say today?"

The program will also include performances by local youth and a video about the life of Martin Luther King Jr. Refreshments will be provided after the program in the cafeteria.

Contact Laura Eddy by e-mail at laura@thepilot.com.