San Antonio Express-NewsHearst Newspapers Logo

Thousands march in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

By , Updated
San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor addresses the crowd at the 2016 Martin Luther King Jr March Commemorative Program at Pittman-Sullivan Park on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016.
San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor addresses the crowd at the 2016 Martin Luther King Jr March Commemorative Program at Pittman-Sullivan Park on Monday, Jan. 18, 2016.BOB OWEN, Staff / San Antonio Express-News

Under a crisp, blue sky, people from all stations of life marched Monday in the city’s annual tribute to Martin Luther King Jr., many bearing personal and political messages.

Bexar County’s first African-American county commissioner, Tommy Calvert, turned around on the stage at Martin Luther King Academy near the start of the march to display the back of his T-shirt, which said, “I do MLK every day.”

“Vision without action is merely a dream,” he said, urging San Antonians to keep civil rights in mind all year for all people — Christian, Jewish, Muslim, all creeds, all races.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

And all seemed to be represented in the crowds that clogged the 2.75-mile route from the Martin Luther King Freedom Bridge to Pittman-Sullivan Park, where a commemorative program kicked off at noon.

They swelled participation in the 29th annual event to a scale that makes it widely considered the biggest such walk in the nation, though organizers’ turnout estimates, which ranged much higher than the 200,000 they had expected, could not be confirmed.

Events last year proved that activism does make a difference, said author and actor Hill Harper, the keynote speaker at the park, citing the Black Lives Matter movement, the renaming of buildings that for years had memorialized slaveholders and the removal of Confederate flags from public places.

“There are so many ways that you can be involved,” Harper said. “There are so many ways you can jump in the fight.”

Some had been waiting since dawn near the academy, its facade draped with larger-than-life banners depicting the slain civil rights leader. There, Mayor Ivy Taylor joined Calvert and other speakers.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Among the crowd, people held signs with quotes from King’s speeches and writings. Madysen Smith, 6, held one above her head that read: “What are you doing for others?”

Several wore T-shirts emblazoned with the words, “I am Marquise Jones. If you don’t know, ask me.” Before the march began, they strode ahead of the crowd, carrying a black and white banner that said, “Arrest Robert Encina,” an off-duty San Antonio police officer who killed Jones, 23, at a restaurant drive-thru in February 2014.

In a march that in recent years has become a catch-all cacaphony of causes large and small, the Jones case was front and center for many participants. A grand jury last month declined to charge Encina, who was working security at the restaurant and told investigators that Jones got out of a car that had been involved in a minor accident while holding a gun.

Harper, the keynote speaker at Pittman-Sullivan, said people are not anti-police, but anti-police brutality. He brought Jones’ family to the stage, he said, to acknowledge his memory.

“We will not tolerate violence,” Harper said. “Whether perpetrated by armed forces or members of the community, the killings have to stop!”

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Jones’ aunt, Debbie Bush, 52, reflected on how her nephew’s death had turned her into an activist.

“I was a quiet person in the background, just raising my son. This has propelled me into places I would never dream,” Bush said. “I want to be a champion for other families who are going through what we are. You see these cases on the news, but till it’s on your front doorstep, you’ll never understand what a family is going through.”

She called the grand jury’s decision a rush to judgment and said it should rehear the case.

The march was punctuated by chants for peace and equality as it flowed toward the park. Mayor Taylor was in the front line with District 2 City Councilman Alan Warrick and U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, not far ahead of former Mayor Henry Cisneros.

San Antonians Lorna and Hoyt Jefferson stood together in matching T-shirts that depicted MLK, Rosa Parks and President Barack Obama. Lorna Jefferson, 53, said she had marched in the parade for years.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

“When I first started marching, it was basically black people,” she said. “Every year, it’s more diverse.”

“It’s for everybody, all races,” said Hoyt Jefferson, 52.

With a sign stating, “Celebrate the Legacy,” Allen York, 51, said he was thrilled to participate.

“I’m originally from Selma, Alabama, so coming from there, as teenagers we did this,” York said.

He walked with his granddaughter, Amerie York, 6.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

“I want to keep the dream alive and educate her,” York said “From small beginnings in Selma, it’s great to see how far we’ve come to celebrate peace, harmony and nonviolence.”

Eva McCuin, 58, sitting with Anna Jackson, 63, at their usual spot at MLK Drive and Badger Street, said King’s message is still important half a century after he delivered it because education and equality are still issues. But Monday was about celebrating.

“Watch what this one gesture will do,” Jackson said. The two women waved, eliciting smiles and cheers from the crowd.

Along the route, members of the SIKH Dharamsal and Sister Mary Katherine of the Carmelite Learning Center handed out bottles of water to thankful recipients.

The tide swept past newly installed street signs and banners before heading to Pittman-Sullivan. The park had been improved since last year’s march, with new sidewalks for people with disabilities, said Jay McCoy, 50, a radiography student helping at the St. Philip’s College booth.

As the crowd flowed across New Braunfels Avenue into the park, Theodore Johnson, 91, sat on a concrete step, unmoving, alert as a sentinel. A surviving Tuskegee Airman, he regarded the multitude with eyes shaded by the bill of a cap embroidered with “World War II Veteran.”

“It’s just an inspiration to me,” said Johnson, who has attended the march for 28 years. “It has grown tremendously.”

People at the park had been cooking since 9 a.m., and ribs and turkey legs were already smoking on grills as marchers arrived. Speeches and choral music rang from a stage with huge photos of MLK, Malcolm X and Rosa Parks.

State Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, posed the question, “Why do we march?” to the crowd.

“We march until racial discrimination is permanently stamped out,” Menéndez said. “Each of us as citizens have an obligation to work against the hate that drives us apart.”

Added Mayor Taylor, “I want to challenge all of you to have the energy all year that you have brought with you to this rally.”

Staff Writers Alia Malik, Mark D. Wilson and intern Lilly Pace contributed to this report.

|Updated

Vincent T. Davis started at the San Antonio Express-News in 1999 as a part-time City Desk Editorial Assistant working nights and weekends while attending San Antonio College and working on the staff of the campus newspaper, The Ranger. He completed a 3-month fellowship from the Freedom Forum Diversity Institute at Vanderbilt University in 2003 and earned his bachelors degree in communication design from Texas State University in 2006. Email Vincent at vtdavis@express-news.net.

Bruce Selcraig is a senior staff writer and former U.S. Senate investigator. A native Texan, he’s written for The New York Times, The Atlantic and Smithsonian, and was an investigative reporter with Sports Illustrated in the 1980s. His work has ranged from refinery explosions to Mafia-backed sports agents and a hunt for the real Robinson Crusoe, a distant Scottish relative.  

By