The parade celebration which honors the legacy and memory of Dr. King is held annually on the third Monday of January. It looms as the oldest continuous event of its ilk (in the city of Jacksonville) as it is a "peace, freedom, and diversity parade." It is actively supported by elementary schools, child care centers, boy and girl scout troops, high school clubs, sororities, social clubs, small businesses, step groups, bicyclists, skaters, campus queens, and an array of other interesting parties and individuals. The MLK Parade is a celebration of brotherhood, a celebration of peace, a celebration of faith in God, a celebration of diversity, and a celebration of life.

The parade day celebration owes its origin to a visionary African-American contingent at Florida Community College’s Downtown Campus as they organized the first such parade in 1981 (prior to the national holiday commemorating Dr. King.) The early period was indelibly marked by frenetic days and insomniac nights of preparation, anticipation, frustration, and hope. Those who were involved understood the magnitude of their undertaking, the complexity of their task, and the intrinsic rewards to be reaped from preparing a "special" parade.

There is nothing that stirs the imagination like a parade replete with clowns, marching bands, floats that defy the imagination, and gobs of children. However, the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., parade celebration is more than merely a parade. It is a retrospective of the past; it is a peripheral look at the present; and it utilizes the eyes of children to look optimistically toward the future.

The parade and its participants are emerging as a veritable rainbow of humanity. Christians, Jews, Bahai's, Muslims, and other faiths figuratively, (and sometimes literally,) join forces to make this parade an "event." Together, they make joyful noises that resonate from the "heightening Alleghenies" to Tieneman Square with the all too familiar cry: "Let Freedom Reign!"

The traditional parade route (Kings Road to Myrtle Avenue) had been questioned repeatedly by those who would have had us march downtown through deserted, empty, near-lifeless streets riddled with urban renewal, blight, and abandonment. There appeared to be something cathartic about having a downtown parade. Symbolism? Yes. Substance? Not in those days.

Our original choice of having the parade in the Myrtle Avenue/Kings Road community was made because that community provided symbol and substance. It was a symbol of both hope and despair; the past and the present; of fulfillment and denial. During the lifetime of Dr. King, the Myrtle Avenue/Kings Road community was comprised of several vibrant, burgeoning, working and middle class African-American neighborhoods.

 Communities such as College Park, Durkeeville, Newtown, Lavilla, Society Court, etc., were anchored by a very different Edward Waters College who graduated such luminaries as Sheriff Nathaniel Glover, James "Cannonball" Butler, Barbara Brown, and countless others. In fact, during the fifties and early-to-late sixties there were no UNF, JU, or FCCJ African-American graduates. Local Bachelor’s Degrees were conferred by Edward Waters College.

Kings Road and Myrtle Avenue were lined with robust, profitable, and viable African-American businesses (restaurants, barber shops, grocery stores, florists, etc.). The residential area was the heart of the African-American community, as it housed more teachers, doctors, lawyers, and other professionals, per capita, than any other African-American neighborhood in Jacksonville (albeit not by choice.) "The whole village raised its children," and expectations of brighter days loomed on the horizon (this was segregated Jacksonville, Florida.)

Substantively, In parading in that community we revisited our roots (psychically and physically) and unexpectedly drew strength from the sad, but approving eyes of grandmothers, and others whom progress had left behind to fend for themselves. We swelled with pride when looking into the faces of excited children who pulsated rhythmically to the sounds emanating from tubas, saxophones, and drums.

We reconnected when families and friends worked assiduously decorating cars, floats, making signs, and banners for this very "special day." In a larger sense, Dr. King’s birthday imbued us with a collective spirit of cooperation, reflection, gratitude. Diverse elements of the city paused, collectively, to honor Dr. King and those who paid, and are still paying, the ultimate price for freedom. Names such as Clanzell Brown, Rutledge Pearson, Michael Schwerner, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Viola Luizzo, Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, Rosa Parks, Daisy Bates, Fannie Lou Hamer, should not be relegated to history books or February Black history celebrations.

We are the recipients of that "last measure of devotion" given so unselfishly by those who participated in the Montgomery Bus Strike; The March on Washington; the debacle at the Edmund Pettus Bridge; The Birmingham Marches; The Memphis Garbage Strike, and other defining moments in the history of this country. The spirit of the parade provides all of us with a chance, symbolically, and otherwise, to practice the brotherhood we preach.

We kept hope alive when the Mayor and other politicians attended the MLK Parade in non-election years. We made friends when marching with our brothers and sisters from the majority community, not just downtown, not just along the Riverwalk, not just at a Jaguars’ rally, rather, in our neighborhood. En route to the ball park (on Myrtle Avenue) where Hank Aaron; Eugene "Stank" White; Bob Hayes; Nathaniel Farley; Jimmy Wimberley; Truck Robinson; Al Denson; Charles "Notts" Sutton; Kenneth Burroughs;  the Stanton Blue Devils; the Matthew Gilbert Panthers; the Douglas Anderson Dragons; the Northwestern Yellow Jackets; the William Raines Vikings; the Eugene Butler Falcons; and the Stanton Vocational Engineers called home. In recalling our initial parade route, a strong case was made for those who would eschew the downtown procession in favor of having a parade in the ‘hood.

In past years, the parade was held on the Saturday preceding the national holiday as many businesses did not observe the holiday, therefore, the day would be a normal workday for many in Jacksonville. In the spirit of community unity, we decided to change the parade day from the Saturday preceding the national observation to the national holiday (the 3rd Monday of January, and to move it downtown) in order to  merge with the downtown activities hosted by the Jacksonville Area Legal Aid.

Oh yes, we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. , because in doing, so we celebrate the best in ourselves. Essentially, the parade is about "little" people, and perhaps that is why we respond so affirmatively to it. Everyone participates as equals with no regard whatsoever to social status, economic underpinnings, or political persuasion. Dr. King told us that he was a drum major for justice; In response, we symbolically participate every year to follow his lead. James Weldon Johnson, a native son, might have put it best: "Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, let us march on ‘til victory is won."

Essentially, we celebrate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., because it is the right thing to do. "Let freedom reign!"