Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech at Dinwiddie County church to be designated state historical marker

DINWIDDIE COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Another culturally significant event in Central Virginia will soon receive the state historical marker designation.

The Virginia Department of Historical Resources (DHR) announced Wednesday, Jan. 14, that it's adding Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s visit in 1962 to Mount Level Baptist Church in Dinwiddie County to its list of historical markers next week.

The marker signifies King's speech on March 28, 1962, during a "People to People" tour of communities in southern Virginia, where he and officials also visited Hopewell and Lynchburg to encourage voter registration and recruit civil rights workers, per a release.

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Mount Level Baptist Church's former pastor and King's chief of staff, Rev. Wyatt Tee Walker, organized the 1962 event. During his visit to Central Virginia, King also made a stop at Dinwiddie County's Rocky Branch community.

A marker dedication ceremony will take place on Monday, Jan. 19, at 10 a.m. at Mount Level Baptist Church, 14920 Courthouse Road. The event is free and open to the public.

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There are currently over 2,600 state markers in Virginia, with most of them maintained by the Virginia Department of Transportation.

DHR said the markers weren't designed to honor the subjects, but rather for educational efforts about a person, place or event of regional, state or national importance.