Martin Luther King Day

The spirit of civil-rights icon Martin Luther King Jr. lives on in Houston—a city he visited less than six months before his April 4, 1968, assassination—where two MLK Day parades will celebrate his legacy on January 18. The Black Heritage Society’s MLK Birthday Parade takes place downtown, while the MLK Parade Foundation’s MLK Grande Parade is in Midtown. The parades culminate several days of activities, including children’s parades organized by both groups on January 16, the Heritage Society’s Gospel Fest, and the Parade Foundation’s marching-band contest at Rice Stadium on January 17.

Texas Folk Art at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art

Texas Folk Art, at the Amon Carter Museum of American Art through September 19, features paintings and sculptures by nine self-taught Texas artists, including Clara McDonald Williamson, H.O. Kelly, Velox Ward, and Rev. Johnnie Swearingen, among others. The artworks often reflect the artists’ daily influences and inspirations, chronicling their impressions of subjects like rural life and community rituals. “These artists were unfettered by academic training or the traditional guidelines of art making,” says curator Shirley Reece-Hughes. “There’s such a freedom to their expression because relaying stories and ideas was their primary concern.”

Battlefield Tours

The U.S.-Mexican war broke out in May 1846 among the scrubby prairies and ditches of the Rio Grande Valley near present-day Brownsville. Today, Palo Alto Battlefield National Historical Park preserves the sites of the war’s first two battles—Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma—and offers wintertime ranger-led walking tours that explore the battles’ dynamics and personalities. Through March, Palo Alto tours are at 10 a.m. Monday, Wednesday, and Sunday; Resaca de la Palma tours are at 2 p.m. Thursday. Call first. 956/541-2785, ext. 333.

The Parkers’ Paradox

At the Bosque Museum in Clifton, A Woman OF Two Worlds and a Man IN Two Worlds relates the frontier story of Cynthia Ann Parker and her son, Quanah. The exhibit’s 48 photos chronicle the ordeal of Cynthia Ann, who was captured as a girl during an 1836 raid and then lived as a Comanche for 25 years before being forced back into American society. Her son, Quanah Parker, was a prominent Comanche warrior during the tribe’s final days of resistance and played a pivotal role in the tribe’s attempts to adjust to reservation life. January 11 to March 4.

Photos: (from top) Courtesy MLK Grande Parade; Velox Ward, Please Feed Me, Collection of Otis and Nancy Welch; J. Griffis Smith; courtesy Library of Congress.