On Jan. 13, Hutchins Academy LLC and the Unity Group of Chattanooga hosted their second annual book drive to celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and promote youth literacy. This year’s event was held at Allgoods Used Books and Coffee Shop and featured several engaging activities for families.
Youth collaborator, Girl Scout Violet Lee, played a central role in the book drive, which collected books to be donated to local Little Libraries. Lee, along with author Tia Hunt and community leader Marie Mott, read to children at the event. The Music, Fashion, Arts Foundation added to the festive atmosphere by sponsoring a variety of children’s activities.
“We are so grateful to the community for coming out to support this important cause,” said Mott, founder of Hutchins Academy LLC. “Literacy is essential to a child’s success, and we want to ensure that every young person in our city has access to books.”
Last year’s inaugural book drive brought in 50 books during Juneteenth celebrations. Those books were donated to Violet Lee’s Little Library project. This year, the organizations are aiming higher and are confident they will surpass last year’s numbers.
Requested Titles include: I Have a Dream by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.; illustrated by Kadir Nelson; Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson; Be a King: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Dream and You by Carole Boston Weatherford; Memphis, Martin, and the Mountaintop: The Sanitation Strike of 1968 by Alice Faye Duncan; We March by Shane W. Evans; and My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. by Martin Luther King III.
The Book and Cover, 1310 Hanover St. and Allgoods Used Books and Coffee, 2420 Glass St., have partnered with the organizations as book drop-off sites.
Unity Group of Chattanooga was organized in 1969 to elect Black candidates to positions in local government. In 1970, the Unity Group initiated the march in Chattanooga, to make Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday a national holiday. The organization is also responsible for renaming 9th Street to M.L. King Boulevard.
The book drive is a part of the Unity Group’s larger celebration of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.
Founded by Harvard Emerging Leader Marie Mott and named after the revered Styles Hutchins, Hutchins Academy LLC is a mentorship program for high school students focused on leadership, academic excellence, literacy and parental support.
Little Free Library is a nonprofit dedicated to increasing book access for all through a network of volunteer-led micro-libraries, usually in the form of a public weatherproof bookshelf built by an individual or group. People can come and get a book for free, so long as they leave a book in return. According to the Little Free Library World Map (https://app.littlefreelibrary.org/ourmap), there are approximately 50-60 registered Little Free Libraries within the Chattanooga area–but probably many more since not all of them are registered.