LEARN TO MARCH

Local children march at library for MLK Day

The great civil justice reform activist Martin Luther King Jr. would have turned 95 years old on Monday Jan. 15, and the Dunbar Heritage Association memorialized and educated the public on his many accomplishments in the days leading up to his birthday.

The MLK Drive and JFK Drive Crossroads Memorial re-dedication ceremony that was set to occur on Martin Luther King Jr. Day had to be canceled due to inclement weather. The event will be rescheduled to a future date that has not yet been announced.

The Dunbar Heritage Association President Alex Banbury said the decision to postpone the activities on Jan. 15 was not made lightly even though it was well below freezing temperatures outside.

“It was not an easy decision to make. It was something I pondered on all week long,” Banbury said. “Our first thing is the safety of the community.” The other events still occurred as scheduled. One such event was the MLK Jr. Kids March that was made possible through a partnership between the San Marcos Public Library and the Dunbar Heritage Association.

The Dunbar Heritage Association Secretary Jonafa Banbury said it's important to commemorate the work that Martin Luther King Jr. did as well as the civil rights movement as a whole.

“We memorialize him now as a Civil Rights hero, but he gave his life for the cause,” Banbury said. “It’s important to provide free education to people about it, because if you don’t, the details of what happened and how it happened would be lost to history. It's important to learn and to understand, not just for the African American community, but it’s a part of American history. So we have to teach it.”

Elijah Jackson-Bradley and Uzziah Crayton-Fennel read aloud the' I Have a Dream Speech' by MLK Jr.

“I say to you today my friends — even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream,” Jackson- Bradley read. “I have a dream deeply rooted in the American Dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed. We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.”

Jackson Bradley and Craton Fennel read the final and most crucial words of the speech together.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but the content of their character,” they read. “I have a dream today.”

The Dunbar Heritage Association Vice-president Mittie Miller played a video that read Let the Children March by Monica Clark-Robinson, which was a story about two kids who participated in the Birmingham March and even went to jail for it. It described how the march and all those involved were the necessary catalyst to bring about change in the south.

“The children really had a big part in the march of Martin Luther King Jr,” Miller said.

The children were split into groups based on age with each group having one instructor that would teach about MLK Jr. The 13 and up group, which also included adults, was taught by Curtis Davis who teaches African American History at San Marcos High School and said he is the only teacher of that subject in the area.

He went through MLK Jr’s early days all the way until his tragic murder. Davis said MLK Jr. was propelled to get involved in the civil rights movement when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus for a white man in Montgomery, Alabama. MLK Jr. led the Montgomery Bus Boycott that was ignited by Parks' bravery. Davis told how Martin was arrested 29 times during his activism, which were all violent arrests.

He also said that the great civil rights leader was inspired to be pacifistic and nonviolent by the actions by Mahatma Gandhi.

“If you are going to participate in these sit-ins you cannot retaliate,” Davis said, highlighting what MLK Jr. told fellow participants before protests. “You cannot have that because it defeats the purpose. … So you have to take it.”

The program concluded with a march, which the kids took from the San Marcos Library to the activity center and back — a symbolic gesture celebrating one of the greatest civil rights leaders of the 20th century.

Jonafa Banbury said she hopes that the event will grow in the future because it is important that free learning opportunities be available to everyone in the community.