By Allan Jamail
Houston, TX. — February 23, 2022 at the Houston Culture Arts Center, 13334 Wallisville Rd., Black History Month was celebrated with the unveiling of a 12’ x 10’ mural of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Program Manager Gayla Wilson of Volunteer Houston was the Mistress of Ceremony. She said the mural was created by 80 individuals who each painted a part of it by painting individual panels approximately 12” x 12”, drawing on their own emotions and perspectives around Dr. King’s messages of services, perseverance, and injustice and their part in creating and contributing to his vision of the Beloved Community.
Michelle L. Bonton, M.Ed, Executive Director said, “Dr. King’s dream of an overall better quality of life through peace and unity was big. Like Dr. King, Harris County Cultural Arts Council is doing something big! We’re using the arts to improve the quality of life and promote unity between people from different backgrounds in unincorporated East Harris County. We’re excited to have this mural as a representation of Dr. King’s legacy and the one we’re building for our community.”
Lexi Reid was one of the artists at the unveiling, and her mother Leslie Perryman and sisters Samantha Reid and Haley Bunn participated in the paintings. She said, “I painted one panel for the mural. My mom got me and my sisters each a panel as part of our Christmas gifts, then later we had a pizza and paint party to complete them. I loved how it took a community coming together to complete the mural the same way the community came together to march with Dr. King.”
Dr. King, an African American, was greatly responsible for bringing social justice to many Americans regardless of race or ethnicity. He was assassinated April 4, 1968, when I was 24 years old.
More than 50 years have passed since Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, but his words are just as meaningful as they were during the peak of the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights leader died at age 39, but his impact continues to this day. From his most famous “I Have a Dream” speech, to his letter from a Birmingham jail, his message is truly timeless.
Martin Luther King Jr. was born and raised in the American South, but his dream of racial equality and social justice reverberated out of his region, into the whole country and around the world. And it just wasn’t his vision that spanned the globe.
Volunteering to assist in the event were President Debra Johnson and members of the East Harris Chambers Liberty County Alumnae of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. (www.easthclcdeltas.org)
HCCAC staff were Sam Smoots, Director of Institutional Advancement, and Kristina Zatopek, Community Engagement Manager, HCCAC. Refreshments provided by Lopez Cake (Anna Lopez, 832-614-0513). Assisting, Luz Maria Lopez, a Cloverleaf Advocate.