Lockhart to pay homage to MLK Monday

By Miles Smith
LPR Editor

District 1 PRIDE’s annual Martin Luther King Parade and Luncheon will turn 15 years old this year when it kicks off on Monday, Jan. 21.
The walk, which was originally founded in 2004 by the late Kenny Roland, a former Lockhart City Council member, has continued to grow each year, event co-organizer Beverly Anderson said.
The march will start at 10 a.m. at the corner of MLK Boulevard and Seawillow Road, and will proceed down South Commerce Street to Market Street where it will eventually end at the Connection Center, where the march will give way to a program led by guest speaker Ronnie McDonald, a former Bastrop County judge, and a free luncheon and silent pie auction that will benefit District 1 PRIDE’s scholarship fund.
Anderson said the march ‘s meaning is especially poignant in a culture that has become increasingly divisive over the last few years.
“Because of the climate of our society, the MLK march brings attention to the need for equality and justice for everyone, and it gives us a reminder of the peril that Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights advocates went through,” Anderson said. “I think we’d come to be at a pretty even keel for awhile, but the last two to three years, with incidents of police violence and tragedies such as the shooting in Charleston, we’ve seen more division in our society.
“We need to take it back to equality for everyone regardless of race, religion or status.”
Guest speaker McDonald is currently a co-pastor at BOLD Church and serves as executive director for community relations and strategic partnership at Texas A&M University.
McDonald was the first African American judge elected in Bastrop County and is thought to be among the first African American yell leaders at Texas A&M University.
“He’s broken a lot of barriers and is a great role model for everybody,” Anderson said.