Los Angeles Parade Commemorates Martin Luther King's Birthday

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Los Angeles Parade Commemorates Martin Luther King's Birthday

Government officials, civic leaders and residents in Los Angeles held the 17th annual King Day Parade on Monday to mark the 73rd birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

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Government officials, civic leaders and residents in Los Angeles held the 17th annual King Day Parade on Monday to mark the 73rd birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

Police estimate that about 50,000 to 55,000 people took part inthe parade, which was held along Crenshaw Boulevard in southern Los Angeles.

County Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke said the diversity of the crowd watching the parade would have pleased King, who was assassinated in 1968 at the age of 39. "This was part of Dr. Martin Luther King's dream: people of every ethnicity and diversity coming together," Burke told reporters.

Governor Gray Davis, Senator Kevin Murray and Representative Juanita Millender-McDonald were among the top officials taking part in the parade. The local officials joining them included Mayor Jim Hahn and City Council members Mark Ridley-Thomas, Jan Perry, Janice Hahn and Nate Holden, as well as Sheriff Lee Baca and Los Angeles police Chief Bernard Parks.

Parks said the rights and values King fought for during his lifetime are just as resonant today. "I would hope that everybody remembers what he stood for, and that is equality, nonviolence, and really a renewed effort to ensure our kids are raised in a healthy environment," he told NBC4 TV.

But Councilman Holden said not enough progress has been made in realizing King's dream for equal opportunity for everyone. He said that while strides have been made in guaranteeing equal opportunity for minorities, the goal of equality espoused by King has not been met.

Memorial services were also held elsewhere in the nation to commemorate King. In Boston, King's eldest daughter, Yolanda, addressed 1,500 people at the city's largest annual MLK Memorial Breakfast. She said Sept. 11 erased racial differences - for now.

In Atlanta, First Lady Laura Bush, in her speech to a crowd of 2,000 packed at the Ebenezer Baptist Church where King once preached, praised the civil rights leader as "a man committed to peace" and " made America a more just nation."

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