For more than three decades, Michael Royals and his family have organized the annual walk. While several MLK events were canceled across the state due to the freezing conditions, Royals says locals persevered, echoing the resilience of Martin Luther King Jr., "I’m truly grateful, but if you just think, if Martin Luther King would have woke up one day and said, ‘It's cold, I'm not going,’ we may not have the dream to think about and even before him the ones that were going through slavery. They could have stopped but if you believe, you believe.”
Royals adds that 34 years ago, his father envisioned this walk as a space to bring the Abilene community together. Today more than a hundred individuals came together to honor history and sacrifice, and to celebrate unity and love.