On Saturday, June 17, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center hosted the 2023 Juneteenth 4K Freedom Walk & Festival.
An estimated 1,500 people came out to celebrate the Juneteenth holiday. This year’s theme was “Let Freedom Ring.”
There were more than 350 registered participants in the 4K Freedom walk, which included community partners, nonprofits, volunteers, and other supporters of the MLK, Jr. Community Center. Attendees enjoyed 55 unique vendors, free food, including fresh produce from the North Texas Food Bank, snow cones from Kona Ice, fun activities for children, including a bounce house, human hamster balls, and arts and craft activities.
There was a special presentation to unveil a replica of the official historical marker at Southern Methodist University honoring Dr. King’s visit to the university in 1966. The replica will be permanently installed inside of the community center for the public to view and to also listen to a snippet of the speech.
Special guests included Harrison Blair, Master of Ceremony; Dallas City Council member Adam Bazaldua (District 7); Dallas Assistant City Manager Liz Cedillo-Pereira; Vocalist Jyllian Manning; Emma Rodgers, Curator of the Dallas Civil Rights Museum; Dance Instructor Bria Washington; and the MLK Advisory Board. Breakfast was provided by DFW Voices for Education and Youth. Lunch was sponsored by KFC and Williams Chicken. Music was provided by DJ Trikky.
Community Partners included the City of Dallas, Dallas Black Chamber of Commerce, LIRA Group, HELP, Amazon, Reliant, Oncor, Accident & Injury Chiropractic, Dallas Park and Recreation, Geico, North Texas Food Bank, Southside Quarter Development Corporation, U.S. Renal Care, BODYARMOR, Southern Methodist University, Guayaki, National Association of Health Services Executives, Solv Energy, Walls Project, Anheuser-Busch, Oasis Focus, Inc., Nebraska Furniture Mart, True Pix Photography, and the African American Museum of Dallas.
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-Photos courtesy of True Pix Photography-
This year’s Juneteenth 4K Walk/Festival of 2023 was off the chain! I truly enjoyed myself, except for the scorching hot sun. I was grateful for the presence of our police & sheriff’s department (with a show of info of their services), food (KFC Chicken that I had), energy drinks, cold water – which definitely was NEEDED, paper hand fans, slushy ice cups, door prizes from LIRA which I wasn’t one of the lucky winners … plus a variety of other giveaways received from the community partner vendors, free food giveaway via a truck … truly awesome!!! I thank you the MLK Center’s staff (Natashia Cooper, Jones, Bacon, etc.), vendors, the community partner vendors, and the community of people from Sunny South Dallas + the surrounding city of people who came out to have a gr8 time & that goal was met … we all did acquire a beautiful day to gather without any incident(s). God is good!
thx for the recap for those of us that could not be there. thx for the participants that helped the community
Thanks to AARP for the paper fans…