The community celebrated State Representative Carl Gilliard and his 43 years of public service during a special event at Savannah Technical College Friday night.

The Savannah native and reverend received the Rosa Parks Civil Rights Award for his service to the state of Georgia and the Savannah community.

Gilliard was born and raised in Savannah. He attended Beach High School and later attended Morris Brown College in Atlanta. He would later go on to launch the Gilliard Foundation and his non-profit Feed the Hungry Foundation which has served two million meals over 17 years.

He also served 10 years in the Georgia General Assembly before announcing he would not seek re-election earlier this year.

Read more at WTOC11.