The director of the U.S. Marshals Service, Donald Washington, is to be the speaker at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. City-Wide Celebration on Jan. 18.
The event is scheduled to begin with a prayer breakfast at 9 a.m. at New Zion Baptist Church’s Dr. J.G. Frank Family Life Center.
A parade is planned at 2 p.m. with assembly at 12:30 p.m. at the Eunice Municipal Complex. All terrain vehicles are not allowed in the parade.
The program is to begin at 3 p.m. at New Zion Baptist Church.
The theme for the 34th celebration is ‘We must be the messengers of change having passion with a purpose.”
Washington was nominated by President Donald Trump to lead the Marshals Service and was sworn in as the 11th director in March 2019.
His biography on the Marshals Serivce website states, “As the leader of America’s oldest federal law enforcement agency, Director Washington directs a force of more than 5,000 operational and administrative employees spanning 94 districts, 218 sub-offices and four foreign field offices. Additionally, as the USMS holds a central position in the federal justice system, Director Washington is responsible for all operations involving federal judicial security, fugitive apprehension, witness security, asset forfeiture, and prisoner operations.”
President George W. Bush appointed Washington as U.S. Attorney for Western Louisiana, which includes Lafayette, Shreveport, Alexandria, Monroe and Lake Charles.
In 2010, he returned to private practice in Lafayette.
Washington is from Sulphur Springs, Texas, and graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, in 1977. He served in the U.S. Army as an air defense artillery officer both on active duty and in the U.S. Army Reserve. In 1989, he received his juris doctor from South Texas College of Law, Houston, Texas.
Special guest at the event will be Charles Cravins, of the St. Landry Parish District Attorney’s Office.
The celebration committee chairwoman is Jacqueline Vallare and co-chairman is Mark Dupre.
