Dunbar Heritage Association, San Marcos remember legacy of MLK

The Dunbar Heritage Association chose “2020 Vision: ‘Without a Vision the People Perish” as the theme of this year’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. 

Denisha Presley, who spoke during Monday’s celebration as the distinguished 2020 MLK guest speaker, said people understand what the dream is but there is a lack of collective understanding of vision. 

“We expect someone else to carry out that vision. We’re kind of sitting back on our heels waiting for the next Dr. King to walk in the door,” said Presley, the principal at San Marcos High School. “I came to tell you today that you are that someone else. And it may not be on the national magnitude, however, we take responsibility for our own actions. A vision is simply a plan. When we take responsibility for our own actions then we inhabit that same power that Dr. King had.”

Hundreds gathered at this year’s MLK Day celebration, which began at the LBJ MLK Crossroads Memorial with a wreath laying ceremony. The wreath ceremony included an address by DHA Treasurer Claudea Blythe, an invocation by Rev. Allen Green, proclamation readings by Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra and San Marcos Mayor Jane Hughson and a reading of “Why We Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day” by Andrea Price.

San Marcos High School Principal Denisha Presley delivers a speech as the distinguished 2020 MLK guest speaker. Daily Record photo by Nick Castillo

Following the wreath laying ceremony, hundreds marched through San Marcos to Dunbar Recreation Hall, where an MLK Day celebration took place. The Dunbar event featured a reading on the meaning behind the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice,” followed by a community singing of “Lift Every Voice.” Xavier Banbury, of Ballet Afrique Contemporary Dance, performed a dance to Nina Simone’s “Strange Fruit,” followed by Presley’s speech. 

Presley said that there are two lies we tell ourselves when facing a challenge — we’re not special and it’s too hard — which she used to discuss King’s struggles. 

“Imagine this: the first (lie) is ‘I’m not special.’ (King was) a 25-year-old man, he just finished his PhD. He was a pastor at a small church in Montgomery, Alabama and it wasn’t until 42-year-old Rosa Parks decided she was tired and she wasn’t giving up her seat to anyone anymore that he was thrust into the national spotlight,” Presley said. “He was a regular guy doing work that he wanted to do, taking care of business, improving himself, moving forward with his education, making sure he was spiritually fed but was thrust into this massive arena. 

“One of the things we forget is that Dr. King was not the most popular person of his time,” Presley added. In the 50s and 60s, Harris Poll said that he had a 75% disapproval rating … Southern segregationists were upset because he was disrupting their way of life. Southern blacks were upset because what he was doing was causing and creating more and more anger and Southern whites were becoming more aggressive with their anger. Northern liberals were like, ‘why are you even doing this?’ … It wasn’t enough for him. He didn’t say that it was too hard. He kept doing it. Even when it got hard, when he was arrested 29 times, when he was brutally beaten over and over again there was never a moment where he said, ‘I quit.’”

Dunbar Heritage Association Vice President Mittie Miller stands by a handmade wreath during Monday's MLK celebration. Daily Record photo by Lance Winter

Presley also discussed three things outlined in King’s “What is your life’s blueprint?” speech that will help inspire vision: “(King) says you must first hold on to a deep belief in your own dignity worth and somebody-ness,” she said. “The second thing he said is we have to be able to achieve in excellence … The third thing that Dr. King said, ‘in your vision plan, you must have a commitment to the eternal principal of beauty, love and justice.’”

Presley finished her speech by saying it’s a beautiful day to gather to celebrate MLK’s legacy. 

“It’s a beautiful thing to replay the ‘I Have a Dream Speech,’ and it is time that we as a collective body move away from the ideologies of a dream and create this reality of a vision.”