South Los Angeles celebrates MLK Day with 39th Kingdom Day Parade
Martin Luther King Jr. Day will be marked by the 39th Kingdom Day Parade, service projects, a festival in Leimert Park and a Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels.
The 3-mile parade began on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, just west of Arlington Avenue, proceeded west to Crenshaw Boulevard and then south to Vernon Avenue, and concluded near the K Line's Leimert Park Station. The theme is "Can't Stop, Won't Stop, Going to the Promised Land."
The grand marshal will be Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, who represents the Second District, which includes the parade route. Two of Mitchell's fellow supervisors, board Chair Lindsey P. Horvath and Hilda Solis, are also scheduled to participate in the parade, along with Mayor Karen Bass and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Oakland, a candidate for the U.S. Senate.
The Disney character Princess Tiana will be the honorary grand marshal. Disneyland will have a procession in the parade with Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and more than 200 Disney employees participating. Metro's representation in the parade will include its replica of the General Motors "old look" bus Rosa Parks was riding on in Montgomery, Alabama in 1955, when she refused to give up her seat to white passengers, sparking the Montgomery bus boycott.
Metro employees will ride Metro Bike Share bikes and walk alongside the vintage bus and a Metro Micro van. Metro Board Director Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker will pay homage to Parks by wearing clothing from the 1950s.
The AIDS Healthcare Foundation will use the parade to spotlight housing affordability, gentrification and homelessness and win support for an initiative it is seeking to place on the November ballot to remove local restrictions against rent control.
The foundation's float will feature the downtown Los Angeles skyline and a quote from a 1966 speech by King at Chicago's Soldier Field during a rally in support of ending discrimination in housing and lending, "We are here today because we are tired. Tired of paying more for less." Marchers will carry "Housing is a Civil Rights Issue" placards and banners.
The parade will also include an entry from the road-safety advocacy groups Streets Are For Everyone and Faith for SAFEr Streets seeking to raise awareness about the importance of the right of children to be able to get to school safely, without fear of being hit and injured or killed by a vehicle.
The entry will start with approximately 25 dancers from elementary school to high school level from Blessed 2 Dance Academy who will be followed by parents and children walking or riding on bicycles, skateboards and scooters representing all the ways children should be able to get to school safely.
A large banner and signs with messages about the need for safer streets will follow, along with school crossing guards and a 1969 cherry red Ford Torino convertible with similar messaging on it.
The USC Trojan Marching Band and the university's all-Black majorette team Cardinal Divas of SC will again participate in the parade after making their debuts last year.
The parade is billed by organizers as the "world's largest and longest-running life celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King."
The parade is organized by the Congress Of Racial Equality of California, a civil rights organization whose goals include combating the abuse of police authority, "education as a civil right for our youth" and seeking to eliminate tensions between Black and Hispanic youths.
There will be service projects throughout Los Angeles County to fulfill the goal set by Congress in 1994 to make the day a "day on, not a day off."
The volunteer organization Big Sunday will conduct its 12th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Clothing Drive & Community Breakfast from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 42nd St. Elementary School in South Los Angeles. Volunteers will collect and assemble 2,024 cold-weather clothing kits that include sweatshirts, T-shirts, hats, scarves, gloves and socks for people who are struggling.
