![\"Kids](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/SUT-L-MLK-Parade-0118-10.jpg\")
Kids from the nonprofit group Our Kings march in the Martin Luther King Day Parade in San Diego on Sunday. (Zo\u00eb Meyers \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\nDrums echoed down Harbor Drive on Sunday as San Diegans lined the street to honor the life and legacy of one of history\u2019s most significant civil rights leaders at the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade.<\/p>\n
The event blended celebration with pointed reminders about unfinished work on racial justice, economic equity and voting rights. Interspersed between marching bands and drill teams, community organizations carried signs with quotes from King.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf all the forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and the most inhuman,\u201d read a banner carried by members of Rady Children\u2019s Hospital\u2019s Black\/African American Equity, Advancement and Empowerment team.<\/p>\n
For its banner, San Diego Veterans for Peace chose: \u201cA nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kids from the nonprofit group Our Kings march in the Martin Luther King Day Parade in San Diego on Sunday. (Zo\u00eb Meyers \/ For The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n
The parade started at 11 a.m. near the County Administration Center. Marching bands, youth groups, elected officials and community organizations made their way along the 1 mile waterfront route.<\/p>\n
James Reynolds stood near the parade\u2019s grandstand wearing a Chargers jersey. He said he\u2019s attended the annual parade for at least 30 years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the thing to do,\u201d he said, adding that he\u2019d never seen so many participants.<\/p>\n
This year\u2019s parade featured marchers from about 80 organizations, said Johnnie Welborne, president of the Zeta Sigma Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha \u2014 King\u2019s fraternity while a doctoral student at Boston University \u2014 which organized the event along with the San Diego Alpha Foundation.<\/p>\n
The day kicked off with a 5K run at 9 a.m. that drew nearly 1,000 runners, Welborne said. Many of the runners stayed on to watch the parade.<\/p>\n
Mark Jones and Julia Cox participated in the run with their children, Hudson and Mara. Both kids attend Barnard Elementary School, which had encouraged its students to take part in the 5K.<\/p>\n
Cox said the parade offered a chance for her children to learn about an important historical figure.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want her to be able to experience being around people who look like her,\u201d she said, nodding to Mara.<\/p>\n
Asked about the wide range of parade participants \u2014 including civic, education and social justice groups \u2014 Welborne said that diversity is tied directly to King\u2019s legacy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we\u2019re talking about Martin Luther King and what his mission and goals were, a lot of the groups that came out share those same aims and beliefs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
That sense of purpose, Welborne said, is what distinguishes the event from other parades.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a mission behind why we\u2019re marching and a reason behind why we\u2019re marching,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Many people wore T-shirts that paid homage to King and other Black leaders. Kevin McCoy, who was standing near the parade\u2019s start, sported a sweatshirt that featured mugshots of Black civil rights leaders like King, Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and Huey Newton. His fianc\u00e9e, a San Diego firefighter who was marching in the parade, gave it to him for Christmas, he said.<\/p>\n
His fianc\u00e9e\u2019s mother, Valerie White, was also wearing a sweatshirt from her daughter. Hers featured images of Black women leaders.<\/p>\n
White said she wears the sweatshirt often \u2014 to her exercise class and to church.<\/p>\n
\u201cTrying to represent,\u201d she said, smiling.<\/p>\n
White said she attends the parade every year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s so inspiring to acknowledge loved ones who\u2019ve passed and youth still to come who\u2019ll walk in peace\u2019s path, thanks to Martin Luther King, Jr.,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
McCoy said King\u2019s lessons about nonviolence are more important now than ever.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe way he protested is the way it should be done today,\u201d he said. \u201cChaos is being brought on people in the U.S. It\u2019s sad, very very sad.\u201d<\/p>\n
Darren Brewer, who let out a whoop when the parade\u2019s emcee mentioned Alpha Phi Alpha \u2014 his was a member of the fraternity at the University of Missouri \u2014 agreed that King\u2019s legacy is as important now as it ever was. He said he worries, though, that King is often viewed as a political figure, when he sees him instead as a humanitarian whose message transcends politics.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe most important values in life are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness for all people \u2014 across all races, creeds and religions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Welborne agreed that current events nationally reinforce the parade\u2019s message.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe overall theme is understanding that we still have a lot of work to do,\u201d he said. \u201cWe can\u2019t just sit back and rest on the work that past generations have done and say that our job is done.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cYou turn on the news and you see that there are still reasons to march and still reasons to protest and make sure our voices are heard.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Drums echoed down Harbor Drive on Sunday as San Diegans lined the street to honor the life and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[23,100,74,76,75,1696],"class_list":{"0":"post-139578","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-local-news","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-san-diego","11":"tag-san-diego-headlines","12":"tag-san-diego-news","13":"tag-top-stories-sdut"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}