ASHTON JEFFERS – NEWS EDITOR ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED JAN 31 2024
A key holiday that San Antonio residents look forward to in January is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. This holiday cannot be understated with the influence and celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day March. The MLK March is held annually on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to commemorate the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and has become a staple to the San Antonio community due to a grassroots effort of Rev. Raymond A. Callies Sr. to start a march in honor of MLK after hearing about his assassination. The San Antonio MLK March is arguably one of the largest, if not the largest, march in the United States. After social distancing brought a pause to the march in early 2020, the in-person event returned last year in 2023, which St. Mary’s students, faculty and staff were able to attend, enjoy a planned breakfast, and used transportation to the march through the Office of Community Engagement on campus.
However, due to icy roads, the march was canceled this year. This does not mean the tradition of honoring MLK’s life and legacy only came in the form of the iconic MLK March on the Eastside, as it continued through other events during DreamWeek that uphold values of civic and community engagement. The DreamWeek organizations have week-long events to celebrate the growth of San Antonio’s dedication to the value of human rights and building empathy and understanding through symposiums, film screenings, exhibitions, concerts and more. Anyone can participate in these events throughout the month of January.
Not only does DreamWeek serve as a time for community events to bring individuals together in San Antonio to celebrate culture and civic understanding, but a recent update from the San Antonio African American Community Archive and Museum (SAAACAM) has marked a historic transition for the organization. SAAACAM recently acquired the Kress-Grant building on 305 East Houston Street in downtown San Antonio after leading a campaign to purchase the space to provide further room for archives and exhibits. Currently located on S Presa St. in La Villita Historic Village, there is a need for more space to continue the organization’s projects and programming. In the Kress-Grant building, SAAACAM will have more than 100,000 square feet of room to work with (KSAT-12).
The Kress-Grant building was not chosen for the need of having more space, but its historical significance to San Antonio African American history creates a perfect opportunity to revitalize a currently vacant building and the stories of the past it holds. During the era of Jim Crow, when many businesses in the South were segregated, Kress was the first department store to desegregate its lunch counter peacefully in 1960 with the involvement of the NAACP along with church and community leaders in San Antonio (KSAT-12). The peaceful agreement was important because it was relatively uncommon compared to the amount of violent opposition in towns and cities in the Southern United States. It was also significant in that the Kress department store was peacefully desegregated four years before the Civil Rights Act came into effect. The local history that this building holds reflects on the larger stories SAAACAM tells in its exhibits, projects and events around San Antonio.
There is still more planning underway in terms of preparing for a new cultural space for SAAACAM, including raising $35 million to completely open the new space to the public. Still, SAAACAM’s staff and supporters are hopeful, having advocated for a civil rights museum space to be in the Kress-Grant building in the past couple of years. SAAACAM’s new Cultural Center may also be considered the largest African American museum in Texas if the development plans come to fruition.
SAAACAM’s work is supported not only by staff and community members but also by several universities and schools in San Antonio. The St. Mary’s University History department has worked with SAAACAM staff on multiple occasions to have students gain experience and understanding by researching historical materials and presenting it in a researched format that can be understood by the larger public. For more information on SAAACAM’s programs and events for the new year, check out their website https://saaacam.org/.