How San Antonio’s MLK march went from 10 participants to become one of the nation’s largest

On Monday, communities will gather to honor the life and legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. One of the country’s biggest events will take place in San Antonio, where upwards of 100,000 people each year march on the city’s east side.

The route goes two and a half miles straight down Martin Luther King Dr. Music, speeches, and the smell of food cooked on front lawns fills the air along way. This year, gold medal-winning gymnast Gabby Douglas will be the keynote speaker at the post-march celebration.

Of course, San Antonio’s march for MLK did not start as an enormous event, that’s for sure. It began much smaller and quieter. But over the years, it’s evolved into the massive gathering it is today.

Arlington Callies, son of one of the march’s founders, joined the Standard to share more about its origins. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.

This transcript has been edited lightly for clarity:

Texas Standard: The origins of this march trace back to your father, as I understand it, Reverend Raymond Aaron Callies, Sr. Could you tell us a little bit more about how this got started?

Arlington Callies: Absolutely. So the march originally started in 1968, a couple of days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and my dad… About nine, 10 of us… I was very, very young at the time. So about the only thing I really recall is a starting point, which is over at Lincoln Park, but nine, 10 of us marched.

The Hemisfair was opening that same year. So we marched in commemoration of MLKing. And once we arrived there, we laid a wreath honoring his life, as well as his legacy.

That’s when the original march got started. And then the early ’70s, my dad continued to march to draw awareness to some of the deficiencies on the east side of San Antonio, where the majority of people who lived there were Black or African American.

Some of these deficiencies – I apologize if this is a long answer – that we sometimes today take for granted, but we just didn’t have things like sidewalks or the drainage was poor, the lighting was poor, traffic lights were missing at intersections. And so that’s why we marched.

So, in a sense, the reason was to remember Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. But in a way, this took on a much larger significance for the community because it brought attention, and therefore people who had listened to the concerns of those marchers.

Absolutely. When we would march, it’s interesting, in the early ’70s – mid-70s late and then early ’80s – then the march started growing because people started joining in. They started seeing what we were fighting for, what we we’re trying to obtain, our purpose. And they would just walk out of the house and they’ll join us.

So we went from like, oh, nine to 10 people to 25. Next thing you know, there’s 50 of us and then there’s 100.

What was there a tipping point? Do you remember one year in particular where all of a sudden you sort of thought “wow, this isn’t what it used to be”?

Yes. Yes, there was. And that tipping point was dad wanted to have a life-size statue of Martin Luther King Jr. That was one of the things he wanted to accomplish. And it was probably his greatest accomplishment, because as I said, the intent was not to grow to march, but to have a life-size statue erected in San Antonio on the east side at the intersection of New Braunfels and Houston.

Now, at this intersection dad created, went to the city, and requested that particular intersection be known as the Martin Luther King Plaza. The city agreed to do that.

And then there’s this grass median where dad wanted to have the statue erected. The city agreed to that – said “hey, listen, Rev. Callies, think that’s a great idea. However, we just don’t have the money. As a matter of fact, we’ll take care of the base of the statue, but it’s up to you to come up with the remaining funds.

And at this time, that statue costs about $25,000, if I remember, so the city funded the first $10K. And then he took the youth, which was part of the Youth Leadership Conference for Community Progress, which was an organization that he started. And we stood out there primarily during the spring and the summer on Saturdays with this red coffee cans and he would distribute them to us and we would stand at all four of the intersections on the median and we will collect money and it took us about five years.

And then in 1982, that’s when the statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was unveiled. And to answer your question, there were approximately 50,000 people there that day for the unveiling of the Martin Luther King statue.

But even after the statue was unveiled, this event kept growing and growing. Why do you think it’s grown so much? In fact, it’s now one of the biggest MLK events in the country. What do you that’s about?

Well, when Mayor Henry Cisneros saw what dad was doing, he said, you know what, Rev. Callies, we’re going to get you some help. And then he created, Mayor Henry Cisneros, the Martin Luther King Commission, where the first president or chairperson was Aaronetta Pierce.

And as a result of now having the Martin Luther King Commission getting the city involved where this created and generated more funding or revenue. And so now the march is going, we have police escorts, we have buses picking people up, the word is out, and it just took off.

As a matter of fact, when we started marching in the early ’70s, we started at a church called Trinity Baptist Church and the walk was only about maybe a mile and a half. And so we marched from Trinity Baptist Church, of course, to the Martin Luther King Plaza – about a mile and a half. Well, when my dad went to the city and requested a bridge, which is now, because he did a lot, the Martin Luther Kingdom Freedom Bridge, that was part of his idea as well.

I remember having the conversation with him and he said, “Arlington, I’m thinking about starting to march at the Martin Luther King Freedom Bridge.” I mean, we’re adding on an additional mile. And he said, “do you think that’d be too far for the marchers?” And I said, no.

And so then the march, now we’re marching from the Martin Luther King Freedom Bridge to the Martin Luther King Plaza. That was back then. But now we march to Pittman-Sullivan Park because the numbers were massive and we just outgrew the area where the statue is located.

Arlington, I hope you don’t mind me asking you a personal question. What happened to your dad? Is he still around?

No, no. Dad has gone to be with the Lord. He passed in 2011. Cancer.

So he got to see the incredible growth of this thing.

Oh yes. Yes, no doubt, he sure did.

How do you feel about how it had grown from being a small event that was very much community-minded into what it’s become? How do feel about that?

It’s very humbling, very honored. I do feel honored because the commission still recognized my dad as the origin or originator of the Martin Luther King march. I, like him, had no idea it’d grow to these numbers.

But yes, it’s very… I feel honored and it’s a very humbling experience.