Martin Luther King Day 2024: Thousands celebrate across LA

LOS ANGELES - Martin Luther King Jr. Day was 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 at 10 a.m. on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, just west of Arlington Avenue, proceeded west to Crenshaw Boulevard and then south to Vernon Avenue, concluding near the K Line's Leimert Park Station.

The theme was "Can't Stop, Won't Stop, Going to the Promised Land."

The grand marshal was 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, were 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 was the honorary grand marshal. Disneyland had a procession in the parade with Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and more than 200 Disney employees participating.

Metro's representation in the parade included 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 also rode bikes and walked alongside the vintage bus and a Metro Micro van.

Metro Board Director Jacquelyn Dupont-Walker paid homage to Parks by wearing clothing from the 1950s.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation used 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 featured 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 carried "Housing is a Civil Rights Issue" placards and banners.

The parade also included 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 started 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 followed, 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 participated in the parade again after making their debuts last year.

The parade was billed by organizers as the "world's largest and longest-running life celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King."

The parade was 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 were 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 conducted its 12th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Clothing Drive & Community Breakfast from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at 42nd St. Elementary School in South Los Angeles. Volunteers collected and assembled 2,024 cold-weather clothing kits that include sweatshirts, T-shirts, hats, scarves, gloves and socks for people who are struggling.

Big Sunday volunteers also undertook a beautification project at the school, including painting murals inside and outside of the school, according to David Levinson, Big Sunday's founder and executive director.

There was a Volunteer Festival at the nonprofit volunteer action center L.A. Works from noon-3:30 p.m. at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum where volunteers will assemble hygiene kits, career readiness kits, food packets and more to be distributed to nonprofit organizations serving vulnerable Angelenos.

There was also be an Intergenerational Volunteer Zone where families and older adults will engage in volunteer activities focused on education equity, including creating book bundles and STEAM kits.

A video game truck will feature the March on Washington fully recreated in Minecraft.

King spoke at the Coliseum in 1964.

Former Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education member Nick Melvoin, joined Fairfax High School principal Leonard Choi and more than 400 City Year Los Angeles AmeriCorps members and volunteers at 9 a.m. in a beatification project at the school.

The project will include mural painting and building planter boxes.

Service projects in Long Beach organized by the leadership program Leadership Long Beach include:

-- gathering and assembling care packages for people experiencing homelessness and Long Beach's senior citizens;

-- helping seniors learn and embrace basic tech skills, mainly focusing on cellphone features;

-- pulling weeds, mulching areas to prevent weeds from resurfacing and planting native plants at Willow Springs Park in an attempt to restore its native landscape;

-- tree planting in North Long Beach and West Long Beach;

-- a beach cleanup near the 72nd Place Lifeguard Station;

-- a cleanup of the St. Luke's Shower Program facility;

-- building garden boxes at the Sowing Seeds of Change Urban Farm; and

-- updating the landscaping of the exterior of the Women and Children's Shelter.

West Hollywood had its Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service at West Hollywood Elementary School, where volunteers are needed from 9 a.m.-1 p.m. to help perform various landscaping, clean-up, painting and other beautifying tasks.

All tasks involve physical labor and volunteers are expected to be available to work a 4-hour shift. Advance registration is required.

Volunteers can register at www.weho.org/volunteer, by calling 323-848- 6413 or emailing lfooks@weho.org.

There was a Freedom Festival from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. in Leimert Park Village, promoting the importance of unity, nonviolent action and social justice. It will include a job fair with city departments, musical performances and arts and crafts and activities for children.

Santa Clarita had its third annual Unity Walk in celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day at 9 a.m. at Central Park.

The walk was preceded by a program on King's legacy and contributions to the nation centered around the theme of "It Starts with Me: Shifting the Cultural Climate Through the Study and Practice of Kingian Nonviolence."

Attendees are asked to bring non-perishable food items to donate to the Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry. Items requested include canned tuna, canned meats, canned tomatoes, canned fruit, pasta noodles, ramen and hygiene products.

The Skirball Cultural Center in Brentwood offered free admission for the holiday.

Its exhibition of rarely-seen pictures of King and more than 150 photographs taken by Civil Rights Movement insiders chronicling the fight for civil rights will run through Feb. 25.

A docent-led tour of the exhibition began at 1 p.m.

"The March," the 1964 documentary on the 1963 March on Washington, best remembered for King's "I Have a Dream" speech, was screened throughout the afternoon in the center's Magnin Auditorium.

The center was open from noon-3 p.m. with the last timed entry at 2 p.m.

"The March" will also be shown at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures along with the 1965 documentary "The Bus," where activist filmmaker Haskell Wexler boarded a bus in San Francisco with a group of Black and white activists for a three-day, cross-country journey to Washington for the march.

The 7:30 p.m. screenings will be followed by a panel discussion on the importance of documenting political movements with UCLA professor Ellen Scott and activist Ben Caldwell.

The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Westside Coalition's 39th annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration will have the theme, "Stop the Hate, Start the Healing." It will include inspirational remarks, music and a brief theatrical performance.

The keynote speaker will be Lisa Holder, a trial attorney recently appointed as the president of the Oakland-based Equal Justice Society who was appointed to the Reparations Task Force by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Former Santa Monica Mayor Nat Trives received the inaugural Nat Trives Service Award.

The celebration began at 9 a.m. at the SGI-USA World Peace Ikeda Auditorium in Santa Monica.

Cerritos' Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Ceremony included comments by Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, Cerritos City Council members and a musical performance.

Attendees were asked to bring a canned good to donate to a local food pantry to the 10 a.m. ceremony.

National Urban League President and CEO Marc H. Morial delivered the keynote address at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center's 22nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Celebration at noon at the center's Harvey Morse Auditorium, followed by a performance by singer, songwriter, and pianist.

A Mass commemorating King's call for service was celebrated by Archbishop José H. Gomez at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels at 3 p.m. It was streamed at www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4aaBJIGtIU.

In his proclamation declaring Monday Martin Luther King Jr. Day President Joe Biden said, "Dr. King's mission was a moral one: from bridges and ballot boxes to pulpits, protests, and courthouses, he courageously stood for the sacred idea that embodies the soul of our nation -- we are all created equal in the image of God and deserve to be treated equally throughout our lives.

"He vocalized that idea on an August day in 1963 when he told our nation about his dream. He saw that idea realized for many Americans with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, ushering in a new era of greater equality and opportunity in our country.

"That work is not yet finished. It is the task of our time to take up Dr. King's mantle and make his dream a reality."