AUSTIN, Texas—A community march from the Tower to the LBJ Library has been scheduled Sept. 24 at The University of Texas at Austin as part of the day long celebration of the University’s new sculpture of Martin Luther King, Jr.
The “Today’s Youth — Tomorrow’s Promise” march begins at 9:30 a.m. and is open to the public. Participants are asked to begin gathering at 9 a.m. on the South Mall of the Main Building. The 12-foot-tall MLK statue, which was commissioned by the University almost two years ago, will be unveiled at noon on the East Mall.
From the South Mall, the march will progress to the plaza of the Student Services Building at 100 W. Dean Keeton St. (26th St.), up to San Jacinto Street, where marchers will turn right, and then left on 23rd St. They will then proceed up the hill to the LBJ Library. A brief program featuring remarks and music will be presented at stops along the march.
Marlen Whitley, UT law student and former student government president, will speak at the Tower before the march, and Dartinya Harris & Innervisions Gospel Choir will provide the music. Gilberto Garcia and Eloy de la Garza, UT alumnus and members of the MLK Sculpture Committee, will speak at the SSB. At the LBJ Library, former student government president Annie Holand, Texas State Rep. Dawnna Dukes and Texas Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos will speak. An Austin elementary school choir will provide music at the library stop.
Marchers will return to the East Mall for the unveiling. Also scheduled that day is a lecture by the sculptors, Jeffrey Varilla and Anna Koh-Varilla of Chicago, and a lecture by photojournalist Flip Schulke, who took many photographs of the late civil rights leader. Schulke’s collection of 300,000 photographs of the 1960s and 1970s will reside at UT’s Center for American History, and a special “Martin Luther King Remembered” exhibit will open Sept. 24. In addition, UT Black Alumni activities are scheduled throughout the weekend.
