San Antonio is well-known for its large scale
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day March, evidence of which is found in the Claude and ZerNona Black Papers. Reverend Black himself was deeply aligned with the actions of Martin Luther King, Jr. on a national level when King was alive and locally, over the years, with the celebration of MLK. Jr. Day.
The
2014 march is on January 20, at 10 am. The City of San Antonio MLK Jr. Commission and
Trinity University annual MLK Jr. Commemorative Lecture is this Thursday, January 16, 2014, at 7:30pm in Laurie Auditorium. This year, Julianne Malveaux, an economist, and noted author, will deliver the lecture. Malveaux has contributed to the public dialogue on issues of race, culture, gender, and how their economic impacts are shaping public opinion. The title of her speech is "From the War on Poverty to the War on Poor People. What Would Dr. King Say?"
Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom March photo album, San Antonio, 1987
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Reverend Black on stage with Rev. R.A. Callies at Martin Luther King, Jr. March, 1993
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Reverend Black at Martin Luther King, Jr. March, 2006 (left to right with Reverend Black, are Reverend Edward K. Maney, City Council person for District 2, Sheila D. McNeil, and Chairman of Martin Luther King Commission, Reverend Herman Price)
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One of the primary persons responsible for the first MLK, Jr. Day marches was Reverend Raymond Aaron Callies (1929-2011), founder and pastor of the First Gethsemane Baptist Church on San Antonio’s Eastside. According to the
Callies family, the first grassroots MLK, Jr. Day march in San Antonio took place in 1972. A brief history of the San Antonio march, written by
Mario Marcel Salas included in the 2005 MLK March souvenir booklet in the collection, states that the march grew to roughly fifty people between 1978 and 1980, and included some of San Antonio’s most active civil rights community members. Salas writes:
Many of the original fifty people involved in the initial march included Rev. R.A. Callies and family, Corine Duncan, T.C. Calvert, Bettye Roberts, Rick Greene, Mario Marcel Salas, Rev. C.C. Houston, Lillian Sutton Taylor, Rev. Christopher Griffin, Vashon Byrd, Jessie Mae Hicks, Bobby Roberts, George Clark, John Stanford, John Inman, Charles Middleton, John Allen, William Boyd, and many others, including members of the local chapters of SNCC, the NAACP, and ROBBED organizations. This initial effort did not enjoy community-wide support, nor was it very popular, as many saw the work of King concluded. The march received very little press coverage, but the marchers marched in all types of weather. In the early 1990s one such march involved freezing temperatures and sleet.
The earliest MLK, Jr. Day march document in the papers is the event brochure for MLK Day 1986, the last march before the City and the
MLK Commission (formed in 1986 by Mayor Henry Cisneros) sponsored the march for the first time in 1987. Reverend Black served with the city’s MLK Commission for many years.
This post features some of the documents in the Claude and ZerNona Black papers that relate to the MLK, Jr. Day observances, and are primarily found in:
Series 7: Printed Material, Sub-Series 8: Ephemera, Folders 1 and 2, Event Brochures: Juneteenth and Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebrations, spanning the years 1982-2010; and, in
Series 4: Organizations, Sub-Series 6: Assorted Organizations, Conferences, and Meetings, Folder 44: Martin Luther King Commission, 1988-2010; and in various photographs and photograph albums in the collection.
-- Donna Guerra
