SPICER RECEIVES MARTIN LUTHER KING AWARD

Juanita F. Spicer was the recipient Friday of the 1994 Martin Luther King Jr. Award, presented at Cape Girardeau's third annual community celebration in honor of the slain civil rights leader.

The award is presented annually to a person in Cape Girardeau who exemplifies the qualities of King, and who has been active in bringing peace and justice to the community.

Spicer is a past president of the Cape Girardeau chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and is the current education chairman of the organization.

In presenting the award, NAACP President Michael Sterling said that through her years of service Spicer has demonstrated King's ideals of "justice, freedom and social betterment through non-violence."

Sterling cited Spicer's work to start the Edward M. Spicer Foundation in honor of her late husband, who was an administrator at Southeast Missouri State University. The foundation sponsors tutorial programs at Washington and May Greene schools.

"Juanita deserves this award because she is successfully working with school superintendent Neyland Clark, ministers, educational leaders and community leaders to help alleviate poverty in our community by providing the key to a better life -- education," Sterling said.

"Juanita is working from the premise that education is power. She is providing tutorial services to any student -- white, black or in between -- so that the promise of equal opportunity can be realized by all.

"Martin Luther King Jr. would love what she is doing," he added. "She is making things better for ourselves and our world. She is making a difference."

Various churches and civic groups in Cape Girardeau nominate people for the annual award. Spicer will receive a plaque with her name, and will have her name engraved on a similar plaque displayed in the public library.

Past award winners include Costella Patterson, Sterling and Freda Sturm.