Thousands of people are expected to line the route of Monday’s 33rd annual Kingdom Day Parade in South Los Angeles, billed by organizers as the nation’s biggest celebration of the life and legacy of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
The parade is set to begin at 10 a.m. at Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Western Avenue, head west on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to Crenshaw Boulevard, then proceed south, concluding at Vernon Avenue. A festival at Leimert Park will follow the parade.
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-California, will serve as grand marshal of the parade, whose theme, “When They Go Low, We Go High,” was inspired by a comment by then-first lady Michelle Obama during a speech at the 2016 Democratic National Convention about what she told her daughters about how to deal with “someone who is cruel or acts like a bully.”
There will be more than 150 units in the parade — floats, bands, equestrian units and dance and martial arts groups — involving more than 3,000 people, according to Adrian Dove, the parade’s president and CEO.
The parade will include entries marking last month’s 100th anniversary of the birth of Tom Bradley, Los Angeles’ lone black mayor; the upcoming science fantasy adventure film “A Wrinkle in Time”; the Cathedral City High School Ballet Folklorico Dance Group; and the Korea Eung HWA Dance Company from Seoul, South Korea.
Volunteers with the AIDS Healthcare Foundation will march to promote the message that “AIDS Is A Civil Rights Issue” because of the disproportionate amount of black people with HIV or AIDS.
Players and coaches from the Los Angeles Dodgers Reviving Baseball In Inner Cities baseball and softball youth development program will ride on the team’s float, along with former Dodger infielder-outfielder Derrel Thomas and Dennis Powell, who pitched for the Dodgers in 1985 and 1986.
World Boxing Council super middleweight champion David Benavidez will be joined by former champions Timothy Bradley Jr. and Mike Weaver and 1984 Olympic gold medalist Henry Tillman on a boxing-themed float.
Anchors and reporters from KABC-TV Channel 7, KNBC-TV Channel 4 and KTLA-TV Channel 5 will also be among the parade participants, along with personalities from KDAY-FM (93.5), KJLH-FM (102.3), KPWR-FM (105.9), KRRL-FM (92.3) and KTWV-FM (94.7).
Other elected officials set to participate include Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer, Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell, Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles, the 2017 grand marshal, Los Angeles City Council President Herb Wesson and Los Angeles City Councilmen Marqueece Harris-Dawson and Curren Price.
Harris was chosen as grand marshal “because she very quickly in her capacity as a senator has become the embodiment of America’s struggle to regain our sense of constructive compassion and the pursuit of what Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. called the spirit of our better angels,” Dove said.
Harris said she was “very honored” to be chosen as grand marshal.
“I think this is pivotal time in our country’s history, and to be able to celebrate the beauty, the diversity of who Los Angeles is in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King at this moment in time is a huge honor,” Harris told City News Service.
“I have spent time in the neighborhoods where the parade will take place, with the families that live there, and the businesses that are thriving there. Los Angeles is a great symbol of Dr. King’s dream of who we can be as a country.”
–City News Service