A crowd of hundreds observed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday with a march and presentation that honored not only the slain civil rights leader but also Alice Pollard, a founder of the Waco event.
The group gathered in Indian Spring Park for the annual march, organized by Zeta Phi Beta and Phi Beta Sigma’s local chapters, then sang “We Shall Overcome” while crossing the Waco Suspension Bridge to Martin Luther King Jr. Park and for speeches, prayers and recollections.
Brenda Freeman gave a presentation recognizing long-time youth advocate and organizer Alice Pollard, who co-created the peace march 24 years ago. Pollard died unexpectedly in November.
“Alice is a wonderful person,” Freeman said. “I’m not going to say ‘was,’ because she still is in our hearts.”
Freeman said Pollard was a member of Zeta Phi Beta, first at Paul Quinn College and then at Baylor University, and described her as a woman who upheld the sorority’s principles throughout her life and was always working on her next project.
“She was forever collecting for the community,” Freeman said. “You name it, she collected it, and she dragged us into doing it too. … Alice was a woman who loved everybody. We talk about ‘sisterhood.’ She pulled us together so many times to do things we really didn’t want to do. When we were on the highway cleaning up, I had a few words for Alice Pollard, but I did it.”
Freeman said events like the march and others created by Pollard are vital for a community.
At the march, Councilwoman Andrea Barefield said this year’s Waco celebration is also special because of its connection to another distinguished Wacoan, Pearl Harbor hero Doris Miller.
The U.S. Navy announced on Monday named an aircraft carrier after Miller, a black Navy messman who helped rescue other sailors and officers during the Japanese raid in 1941 and shot at invading warplanes. It is the first time an aircraft carrier has been named for an enlistee.
The U.S. Navy announced on Monday named an aircraft carrier after Miller, a black Navy messman who helped rescue other sailors and officers during the Japanese raid in 1941 and shot at invading warplanes. It is the first time an aircraft carrier has been named for an enlistee.
“That’s a feat that is only accomplished by presidents, and very few non-presidents,” Barefield said. “This event is extra special because we also got an opportunity to honor Alice Pollard, who was a juggernaut in this community and an amazing human being, who did so much more than we will ever know. She is an example of the kind of legacy Dr. King left, that we’ll plant trees we’ll never sit under and dig wells we’ll never drink from. ”
Shevann Steuben, president of the Baylor chapter of the NAACP and president of the state’s youth and college division, held a banner with other NAACP officers at the march. She said students are eager to get involved every year.
“I think it stands for itself, it’s Martin Luther King Day,” Steuben said. “We’re just kind of renewing our history and saying, ‘This is something that someone else fought for us to have.’ Obviously there’s many more civil rights activists who’ve done the same.”
Baylor students Tanaka Tava and Jacarra Eshan both said they took the messages about responsibility to heart.
“As a young person, it’s important to look back at all the prominent figures that paved the way,” Eshan said. “It holds us to a higher standard, to really push for that change and implement it within our generation.”
Tava said it’s easy for young people to start to feel overwhelmed, jaded or powerless when technology provides an endless deluge of information.
“It’s a blessing, but also a lot of responsibility to understand that we can make an impact and come together,” Tava said. “All the prominent leaders took a step forward when they were young in order raise their voice, and because of their boisterousness and their willingness to convey and articulate themselves, that’s how far they got.”
Teresa Turner performed the Alma Bazel Androzzo hymn “If I Can Help Somebody,” reportedly one of King’s favorites. Turner, 42, said she’s been performing the same song since she was 14, and has performed it numerous times at Martin Luther King Jr. Day marches.
“The meaning has changed over time as I’ve gotten older,” Turner said. “It’s talking about the cause, and why we sing it, why your living should not be in vain, and it definitely comes from a background of church.”
Turner granted a request for an encore, earning another round of applause through the chorus, “If I can help somebody, as I pass along, then my living shall not be in vain.”
Waco National Association for the Advancement of Colored People President Peaches Henry spoke about present-day injustices, calling for attendees to stay motivated long after the emotions of the moment fade.
“We have a lot to be emotional about,” she said. “Children are being locked up in cages on the Texas border and in Texas prisons. Children are dying from gunfire in and out of school. The federal government has moved to cut SNAP benefits not once, not twice, but three times. White supremacists are killing people all over this country and setting policy in the White House. Texas is actively suppressing the votes of people of color, young people and seniors by limiting early voting, causing the elimination of polls on campuses and purging voters.”
She introduced this year’s NAACP banquet theme, “Stand in the Gap,” a reference to Ezekiel 22:30, and called for the attendees to stand up for victims of injustice, register to vote, participate in the census and participate in local elections.
Local Baptist preacher Kerry Burkley, Program Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of the Advocacy Center for Crime Victims and Children, delivered a reflection at the end of the presentation.
“In reflection of the work Dr. Martin Luther King did not only for our communities but for the world, is in reflection with ‘liberty and justice for all,’” Burkley said. “Liberty, that ability to be free to do what seems of heart’s desire, to have a creative enterprise in a country that has so much to offer. For individuals in our communities at the time, we were not getting those liberties, and there was no justice at all.”
Burkley said it’s important for everyone, young and old, to find a way to continue to work toward liberty, before concluding with an excerpt from King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech.