Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Los Angeles Marks Martin Luther King Day with Parade
The second largest US city of Los Angeles celebrated the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday with a variety of events that included a parade led by Californian Governor Gray Davis.
The second largest US city of Los Angeles celebrated the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Monday with a variety of events that included a parade led by Californian Governor Gray Davis.
The parade started from Martin Luther King Boulevard in westernLos Angeles and ended at the Marlton Avenue. Assembly Speaker HerbWesson and other dignitaries also participated in the parade to remember King, the civil rights leader who was assassinated in April 1968.
A march through Inglewood in the city was also held to pay homage to the slain civil rights leader. Meanwhile, the Long BeachCity College presented a daylong program, including speakers, music and a screening of the documentary "Eyes on the Prize."
In West Los Angeles, the Museum of Tolerance commemorated Martin Luther King Jr. Day with "The Right to Dream," a combination of theater, video and live interaction performed by Living Voices.
King embarked on his civil rights campaign in Alabama after earning a doctorate of divinity from Boston University, where he met his future wife, Coretta Scott, who carries on much of his work today.
His 382-day boycott of the segregated bus system in Montgomery led to a US Supreme Court ruling that declared the practice unconstitutional.
In the 1960's, King organized numerous nonviolent protests and voter registration drives across the southern states in the UnitedStates.
On the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1963, King delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech, saying he had a "dream that myfour little children will one day live in a nation where they willnot be judged by the color of their skin" but by their character.