HAMLET — Gloria Mask knew there was power in presence. 

And she realized that the real power was consistency, showing up and riding the bus to Moral Monday marches in Raleigh; to NAACP executive committee meetings in Richmond County; to Hamlet City Council meetings and the swearing in of the first Black fire chief in Hamlet; protesting a potential poisonous landfill in Richmond County; or calling and writing Sen. Jesse Helms to remove the carcass of the Imperial Chicken Plant in Hamlet in 1992. 

ROCKINGHAM — The Richmond County Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Foundation Committee has four days of events scheduled this year to honor the fallen civil rights hero using the theme “Unity: Yes We Can!”