Photo By Ferdinand Detres Jr | More than 400 Soldiers came together at Camp Carroll, South Korea, Jan. 15, to pay...... read more read more
CAMP CARROLL, South Korea - In observance of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day, the 25th Transportation Battalion hosted a march that began at the Material Support Command Korea, Camp Carroll, Waegwan, South Korea, Jan. 15 and ended at the post theater.
The event titled "Come march with us, Remember! Celebrate! Act! A day on not a day off," brought more than 400 hundred Soldiers and civilians from various parts of Area IV assembled in unity to pay tribute to MLK and the civil rights movement.
Throughout the duration of the march, U.S. Soldiers and Korean Augmentation to the U.S. Army Soldiers (KATUSA) held up signs while marching up the hill towards the theater. A couple of the signs read, "End segregation rules in public schools" and "Give us American rights."
On the way up the hill that leads up to the theater, every few hundred feet, the marchers were stopped and given a brief history of three significant events from the civil rights movement.
When the marchers came to their first stop they were given a brief history of the Little Rock Nine. After the governor of Arkansas, Orval Faubus deployed the Arkansas National Guard to support segregationist Sept. 4, 1957, President Dwight D. Eisenhower intervened by ordering the 101st Airborne Division to escort nine African-American students into Little Rock Central High School, whom were being denied access because their race.
"My intention for this event was to give people a wakeup call and to show them that we have history within one man,” said Sgt. Earl Bryan, the event coordinator, assigned to the 665th Movement Control Team, 25th Transportation Battalion. “MLK’s passion against all odds beat out the oppression in that time in history."
At the second stop, the marchers were given a brief history of Rosa Parks. On Dec. 1, 1955 Parks’ refusal to obey bus driver James F. Blake became a significant event in the civil rights movement. Parks refused orders by Blake to give up her seat in a colored section of the bus to a white commuter.
Several more hundred feet up, the marchers stopped one last time, at this stop they learned about Bloody Sunday. On March 7, 1965 in Selma, Alabama, 600 peaceful marches intended to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge over the Alabama River en route to Montgomery. The nonviolent protesters were met by the Alabama State Troopers who asked them to turn around. When the protesters refused to comply they were subjected to canisters of tear gas and beaten with billy clubs.
Upon reaching the theater, the marchers gathered outside with their arms interlocked, and then proceeded to enter the movie theater as a single mass group with their arms still interlocked. The march up the hill to the theater signified The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, led by Dr. King Aug. 28, 1963.
When Soldiers and civilians took their seats inside the theater, several Soldiers at specific times stood up and gave Dr. King's famous, “I Have a Dream” speech. It was the speech Dr. King gave at the end of the march in Washington D.C.
"Let us remember, let us celebrate a great leader, a great vision, a man who changed the world, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," said Lt. Col. Jason Baker, commander of the 501st Special Troops Battalion, 501st Sustainment Brigade, who was the guest speaker for the closing remarks of the event.
| Date Taken: | 01.15.2015 |
| Date Posted: | 01.21.2015 04:13 |
| Story ID: | 152334 |
| Location: | CAMP CARROLL, KR |
| Web Views: | 98 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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