Community leaders gathered Saturday at South Suburban College to recognize top businesses in the area as well as area individuals at the 11th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Business Brunch.
Dolton Mayor Tiffany Henyard received the Martin Luther King Service Award, Latoya McDonald was named Business Person of the Year and longtime company Land O’Frost was honored as Business of the Year.
Henyard’s term as mayor has been mired in controversy, some of it reaching the national spotlight, for alleged profligate spending on a beauty regimen, a costly trip to Las Vegas, a proposal to cap the mayoral salary at $25,000 for any replacement and lawsuits from trustees for alleged financial improprieties.
Nevertheless, Henyard has defended herself in grandiose terms, which were echoed Saturday.
At one point, after decrying “politricks” by the media and her opponents. Henyard pointed out that she oversaw the construction of a large ice-skating rink but, in her opinion, she got little credit for that and alleged her attackers make money on social media views.
“People drag you, they put a smear campaign on you,” Henyard said.
But she went on to say, “I am Martin Luther King, I am Rosa Parks and I am Harriet Tubman.”
The theme of the event was civility.
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Henyard aside, the other awardees kept remarks to a familiar script of thanking the community and the college for the recognition.
“We like to invest in those organizations in our communities,” said Kelli Howard, the vice president of Lansing-based Land O’ Frost supply chain.
Land O’ Frost is a family-owned sliced sandwich meats company that is a national band. However, Howard said, keeping close to home is still important.
“We have a lot of employees who are part of this community, the work that you are doing to empower our community and our young people is of great benefit to our young people, so thank you,” she said.
However, the top of the event did touch on national politics, with Saturday being the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Keynote speaker and Illinois Supreme Court Justice J. Scott Neville Jr., told the audience the solution to the Jan. 6 debate — no matter the side — was best settled at the ballot box.
“There’s one simple solution to that problem. Vote,” he said. “You have the power in your own hands. … you can’t win if you don’t vote.”
But, he also pointed out even seemingly right solutions might not be popular, though a sense of right and wrong is necessary.
“Conscience will ask the question, ‘is it right?'” Neville said. “Every day of my work, there comes a time when I must take a position and that position is neither safe nor politically correct nor popular. … To this day I continue to do that.”
Jesse Wright is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown