MLK Boulevard And Martin Luther King’s Legacy Celebrated On Saturday

BY TIMOTHY CAMA
BRISTOL HERALD COURIER

BRISTOL, Va. – Two feats were celebrated in the Twin City on Saturday.

The first was the fact that a group of 15 local residents had successfully petitioned city leaders of Bristol, Va., and Bristol, Tenn., to designate a street running through both as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard a year ago.

But for folks who gathered Saturday morning for a parade along State Street and for a ceremony by the boulevard, it was a celebration of the life of Martin Luther King and what he did to improve life for people of racial minorities.

“We are here to celebrate,” Wilhelmina Banks declared as she began a speech explaining the reasons behind Saturday’s event. She organized the effort to rename the streets, formerly Randall Street Expressway in Virginia and Edgemont Avenue in Tennessee.

“The two streets were joined in unity at the Virginia and Tennessee state line, and renamed in honor of the esteemed civil rights, peace and social justice leader, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” she said.

Banks told those in attendance about her ancestors’ journey from the Marion, Va., area shortly after the Civil War, walking along the railroad until they reached what was then Railroad Street in Bristol, Va. – now the Virginia portion of MLK Boulevard.

Some of her ancestors later moved to what was then known as Woodlawn Avenue on the Tennessee side, and is now Tennessee’s portion of the boulevard.

“Both black streets were appropriated later under the urban renewal project in 1963,” Banks said, and most of the black families along the two streets were forced out.

A group of 20 marchers started Saturday’s parade at State Street and Bob Morrison Boulevard, and proceeded to a parking lot at State Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

Participants carried signs that read: “Peace and Justice” and “Strength in Unity,” while marching to the beat of a snare drum.

The Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard Renaming Team called Saturday’s event “Let the Trumpet Sound,” taking words from Psalm 150 and the prophet Jeremiah.

“This is a landmark celebration,” said Nathanial Moulterie, a minister with Lee Street Baptist Church in Bristol, Va. He wasn’t involved with the street renaming, but organizers asked him to give the closing benediction Saturday morning.

“It’s a memorial to Dr. King,” Moulterie said, comparing the street to memorials to Thomas Jefferson and George Washington. “It’s a visual reminder to people of all races of what Dr. King did for this country.”

Bristol, Va., officials designated the former Randall Street Expressway as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in late 2006, shortly after Banks and her team petitioned the Bristol Virginia City Council to do so.

But in Bristol, Tenn., city officials weren’t so expeditious in renaming their part of the street. Businesses along what was then Edgemont Avenue objected to the redesignation on grounds that changing the address on their signs, Web sites, business cards and letterhead would be a burden.

However, the Bristol Tennessee City Council voted in favor of the new name, and it went into effect in July last year.

Banks and other speakers were sure to thank leaders in both cities for the contributions to the effort.

“Together, we did it,” she said.

TIMOTHY CAMA is an intern with the Herald Courier and can be reached at or (276) 669-2181.