Dunbar Heritage Association's MLK Day celebration goes virtual

The Dunbar Heritage Association’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration went virtual Monday. 

The DHA asked viewers and members of the San Marcos community to take the Common-Unity pledge, which is a commitment to promoting and modeling specific objectives that reflect a set of behavioral standards that the association believes highlight three particular principles — civility, collaboration and community.

“2020 was a very, very difficult year,” said Jonafa Banbury, DHA secretary, “a very, very controversial year. We live through some things that we never thought we’d see … The Dunbar Heritage Association was just thinking about what can we do in 2021? How can we start the year and honor Dr. King’s legacy of peaceful, nonviolent protest and trying to bring the lowest parts of our community to a sense of equity and equality and community? What can we do as an organization within San Marcos and Hays County? 

“So, we thought about it and we came up with the Common-Unity objectives,” Banbury added. “It’s a play on the word of community. We are a community. Sink or swim, rise or fall together, we are a community.”

Since its inception in 1999, the DHA alongside multiple San Marcos organizations has come together to commemorate the main Black cultural holidays: MLK Day in January, Black History Month in February, and Juneteenth in June. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the MLK Day celebration looked different than it has in years past, but continued to promote the core values that Dr. King hoped to inspire.

This year’s theme was “From Collective Chaos to Common-Unity” which is an ideology inspired by Dr. King’s work.

The DHA showcased their wreath-laying ceremony at the LBJ MLK Crossroads Memorial at the corner of LBJ and MLK drives, which was filmed prior to the live streamed event. Monday’s ceremony also featured soloist Joshua Banbury, who sang a rendition of the Black national anthem, Lift Every Voice. The DHA played a personal reflection on Dr. King by Pastor Paul Thompson. A video showed audio and essay reflections on what equality means from San Marcos High School students. San Marcos Public Library Workforce Development Librarian Deborah Carter read "A Place to Land: Martin Luther King Jr. and the Speech That Inspired a Nation" by Barry Wittenstein.

To participate in the Common-Unity pledge, the DHA is asking people to reach out via email at dhasmtx@gmail.com or through the organization’s Facebook page. Another way to get involved is to post or share the Common-Unity pledge PDFs or JPEGs on your social media accounts.