{"id":124518,"date":"2026-01-20T04:45:25","date_gmt":"2026-01-20T04:45:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/124518\/"},"modified":"2026-01-20T04:45:25","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T04:45:25","slug":"thousands-line-streets-of-tampa-for-annual-mlk-day-parade","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/124518\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands line streets of Tampa for annual MLK Day Parade"},"content":{"rendered":"

TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Everything from marching bands to festive floats to dance troupes and, of course, lots of beads could be found at the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade on Monday.<\/p>\n

Thousands of families lined both sides of the street, excited to reflect and celebrate.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s important for the youth to see the contributions that somebody like Martin Luther King Jr. made to make all this possible, you\u2019ve got all kinds of races and people coming together,\u201d said Diamond Sanders, who attended the parade with his children.<\/p>\n

WATCH: Thousands line streets of Tampa for annual MLK Day Parade<\/p>\n

Thousands line streets of Tampa for annual MLK Day Parade<\/p>\n

Families said it was a little chilly, but nothing was going to keep them from this annual tradition.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s cold but I don\u2019t mind though, so they can experience the togetherness of black history and what MLK stood for,\u201d said father Clifford Pittman.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe weather is definitely acceptable, I\u2019m a registered New Yorker but I live here now it\u2019s perfectly fine,\u201d said Marsha Marshall.<\/p>\n

Every year, the parade has a different theme, and this year’s was “Courage is Contagious.”<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/p>\n

WFTS<\/p>\n

\u201cAs they get older and they navigate this world, it\u2019s really important for them to know where they stand and how to be confident and move forward and seek community,\u201d said mother Tanaya Wilson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went to the Martin Luther King parade every year, so this was an experience for me that I want them to experience as well, just the culture and celebrating,\u201d said mother Shana Amarquaye.<\/p>\n

You could say many people left the parade inspired.<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause Martin Luther King had a dream and I believe that dream is finally coming true,\u201d Akina-Naomi Kennedy.<\/p>\n

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FWC releases report detailing deadly alligator attack at Lake Kissimmee State Park<\/p>\n

The couple involved launched an 11-foot canoe and traveled along Tiger Creek and then toward Lake Kissimmee prior to the incident.<\/p>\n

FWC releases report detailing deadly alligator attack at Lake Kissimmee State Park<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014 Everything from marching bands to festive floats to dance troupes and, of course, lots of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":124519,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[205,61818,168,52752,61817,276,159,18143,135,3670,137,136,208],"class_list":["post-124518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-abc-action-news","tag-beads","tag-celebration","tag-dr-martin-luther-king-jr","tag-dr-martin-luther-king-jr-day","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-parade","tag-robert-boyd","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-bay-local-news","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-wfts"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}