Region readies to honor civil rights leader

Area events surrounding the Martin Luther King Jr. weekend start Saturday.

“I’m really excited this year,” said Constance Williams, vice chair of the Clovis MLK Jr. Commission.

“I think our focus of ‘Non-violence seeks to win friendship and Understanding.’ is timely. It’s based on Dr. King’s second principal, he had six of them. Given all the stuff happening in our community, we need to live it.”

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham recently appointed Williams, a Clovis resident, as vice chair to the state MLK Jr. Commission as well.

The weekend’s Scholarship Breakfast is set for 9 a.m. Saturday at the Clovis High School cafeteria. It’s a fundraiser for the commission’s scholarships, which are awarded in May.

“The big scholarship is for $1,000,” Williams said.

Williams said this is the 34th year for the scholarship breakfast and awarding of the scholarship.

“Over $50,000 has been awarded over the past 34 years,” Williams said.

Tickets to the Scholarship Breakfast are $15.

Monday is the annual symbolic march and rally in Clovis, Williams said. It starts at 9 a.m.

“The march starts at Potter’s Park at the King obelisks. We start with a prayer then march to Seventh and Main streets, at Legacy Life Church,” Williams said.

Speaker at the church will be Pastor Marvin Cox with United Family Ministries.

MLK Jr. Commission President Joyce Pollard said the MLK Jr. Commission “wants to focus on the youth and community in Clovis, to get as many students as we can in college and to get students involved in their community.”

“We have too much violence in our community lately,” Pollard said.

Pollard hopes to get area youth to focus on what the late civil rights leader was about: equality for all, without violence.

“The importance of the march is to focus on what Dr. King stood for. It’s a peace march. It has significance.

It’s to remember, celebrate and honor a great American,” Pollard said.

In Portales, Eastern New Mexico University Associate Vice President John Houser noted Monday “will be a day of service” for students in honor of King.

“Together, we’ll give back to the Portales community and make a meaningful impact.”

He said ENMU students will be doing community service projects that day while working with the city of Portales.