Keeping a legacy alive<\/p>\n
While King was assassinated 58 years ago, West Philly community members remain dedicated to preserving his legacy. A state historical marker commemorating the 1965 Freedom Now address sits at the closest intersection, erected in 2010<\/a> by the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission. In 2025, the block was named the \u201cRev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Triangle.<\/a>\u201d<\/p>\n Local businesses also pay homage to King. Plant and People, a plant shop and cafe located where King gave his Freedom Now speech, features framed photos of King around the shop. Inside, Makeba Rainey, a Philadelphia-based artist, hosted an interactive pin-making workshop. At her station, festival participants could customize Black history-themed pins, featuring portraits of King and messages about liberation.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m mostly a digital collage artist, and I\u2019m here because Martin Luther King is one of my favorite people to make portraits of,\u201d Rainey said. \u201cI try to make a portrait of him every year, and I think this is a great event and opportunity to just recognize that we are in the same spot that he was in years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n Other artists, like Sean Ramon Montague, founder and owner of Ethnicitees LLC, traveled from out of town to honor King at the festival. Montague, who is from Baltimore, designs educational T-shirts featuring Black historical figures, preserving their stories through wearable art.<\/p>\n \u201cI was a teacher in Baltimore City Public Schools. I was tired of schools not teaching African American heritage to our kids \u2026 so we\u2019re here today and spreading the legacy and continuing the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King,\u201d Montague said.<\/p>\n Joe Becton, a historian of Philadelphia Black history, said the city has a long and rich legacy of activism that expands beyond King. Reflecting on the meaning of freedom, Becton told the crowd to remember the perseverance of the Black community.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now, it\u2019s a backlash, and we\u2019re getting kicked. But we\u2019ve been kicked before, and when it\u2019s all over, we are going to be the ones who define and identify what freedom is for Philadelphia, for the United States, and for the entire world,\u201d Becton said.<\/p>\n