January 14th, 2010
San Marcos to commemorate MLK holiday

SUBMITTED REPORT

The San Marcos community will remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, January 18, with a special courthouse program, a signing ceremony and a march from South LBJ Drive to Martin Luther King Drive to Dunbar Center in San Marcos.

Participants are invited to park in advance at Dunbar Center, 801 MLK Drive, where vans provided by First Baptist Church and the Pentecostal Temple Church of God in Christ will transport people to the Hays County Courthouse.

Sponsored by the Dunbar Heritage Association, the events will begin at 11 a.m. at the Hays County Courthouse with a program featuring proclamations presented by Mayor Susan Narvaiz and Hays County Judge Liz Sumter.

The program will also include a reading of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, selections by the Anointed Voices Choir, and singer Chris Williams performing the National Anthem and the Black National Anthem.

Participants will then begin a walk two blocks down South LBJ Drive to its intersection with MLK Drive—the only such intersection in Texas that commemorates both President Lyndon B. Johnson, who crafted the 1965 Civil Rights Act, and Dr. King,  the civil rights leader who was slain in 1968.

A signing ceremony of a joint City-County agreement will be held at the location of a future monument to both leaders by Mayor Narvaiz and Judge Sumter.

President Johnson was a graduate of Texas State University whose life in San Marcos is commemorated by the LBJ Museum of San Marcos, 331 N. Guadalupe St., which will be open Monday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The march will then proceed on MLK Drive to the Calaboose African American History Museum where the City Clerk’s office will provide water and the museum’s Traveling Trunk of historic artifacts will be on exhibit.

The walk will then continue to Dunbar Center, 801 Martin Luther King Drive, for a reception and table exhibits by the Complete Count Census Committee, the Hill Country NAACP, and other displays about Dr. King, LBJ, civil rights and community activities.

Monday is the national holiday honoring Dr. King. City of San Marcos offices will be closed.

For more information, contact Harvey Miller at 512-396-4903 or Wylinda Tracey, 512-618-0552, both with the Dunbar Heritage Association,  or City Council Member Chris Jones at 512-826-9468.

— FROM THE CITY OF SAN MARCOS/MELISSA MILLECAM