17/01/2016
Sunday afternoon we went to St Gerard’s RC Church (Redemptorists) to take part in an Interfaith service to celebrate MLK. As one would expect there were inputs from all the main faiths including prayers, hymns, dance, sounding of the shofar and an address from the first black judge, Justice Jason Pulliam, in San Antonio. Theme was Faith, Hope and the American Dream. The service was certainly hopeful and concluded with singing “We have a dream”.
After the service an amazing meal was served in the adjoining hall; chilli, fried chicken, lasagne and salads as well as some wonderful biscuits (cookies).
We met Mehmet, a Turkish man, whom we had met at Corrymeela with the the class from St. Mary’s University in the spring 2015. He runs the Dialogue Centre in San Antonio which is a Turkish organisation similar to NITECA in Belfast.
18/01/2016
We joined a march of some 200,000 (Correction – see Andy Hill’s comment) people from the MLK Bridge to St Philip’s College along MLK Avenue. It was beautiful weather for walking and it took place at a very leisurely pace. Many different people took part including the Buffalo soldiers, a regiment of black soldiers that took part in the civil war, a Seikh drummer, churches along the way handing out water. (Photos to follow).
I saw your comment about the 2016 San Antonio MLK March, which was a great event. You might, however, have missed the estimated count in the number of people there today. The police will issue a formal number in a few days (they analyze aerial photographs), but it looks like it may have been over 200,000!
http://www.ksat.com/news/thousands-hit-the-streets-for-mlk-march
Those buffalo soldiers must’ve been pretty old if they took part in the American civil war…!