Festivities Honoring Dr. King Start : Parades, Speeches to Mark Rights Leader’s 60th Birthday

Shortly after sixth-grader Milton Earls Jr. delivered the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech at King Elementary School, more than 1,000 students, teachers and parents took to the streets in Southeast San Diego.

Bands from Lincoln Prep School, San Diego High and Memorial Junior High, as well as representatives from the San Diego Urban League and other local organizations, participated Thursday afternoon in the fifth annual parade sponsored by King Elementary. The parade was the first of several celebrations that, over the next four days, will commemorate the slain civil rights leader, whose 60th birthday would have been Sunday.

Another school march will begin with a program at 9:30 a.m. today on the playground of Knox Elementary School at 1098 S. 49th St. The 12th annual Martin Luther King Commemorative March will include 2,000 students from more than 20 elementary schools in the San Diego Unified School District.

Third-grader Anneshah Powell, winner of Knox’s “I Have a Dream” speech contest, will recite King’s famed address, and remarks will be made by the parade grand marshals, Deputy Supt. Bertha Pendleton and San Diego Police Chief Bob Burgreen, before the 1 1/2-mile procession begins at 10.

The celebrations continue at 11 a.m. Saturday with the ninth annual Martin Luther King Day parade, starting at 8th Avenue and Broadway downtown.

That parade grand marshal, Police Capt. Rulette Armstead, will lead more than 100 floats and marching bands down Broadway, ending at Columbia Street.

After the march, a program will be held on the grounds of the County Administration Center, 1600 Pacific Highway.

The parade, sponsored by the San Diego chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, in cooperation with the city and county, will be broadcast, along with a half-hour television tribute to King, at 2 p.m. Sunday on KUSI (Channel 51).

Other events honoring King include:

- A commemorative breakfast at 7:30 a.m. today at the Jackie Robinson YMCA at 151 N. 45th Street. Keynote speaker will be El Cajon Municipal Judge Elizabeth A. Riggs. Elementary school children will read poems they have written.

- The second annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration from 1 to 3:30 p.m. today at San Diego State University’s Don Powell Theatre. The event will feature the Gompers Junior High School Choir, solo vocalist Anasa Johnson and an original work composed the day after King’s death in 1968 by SDSU music Professor David Ward-Steinman.

- The 90-voice Grant A. M. E. choir of Los Angeles at 6 p.m. Sunday at Bethel A. M. E. Church, 3085 K St. The celebration is co-sponsored by Christ United Presbyterian Church and will feature speakers Dorothy Smith, president of the San Diego Board of Education, and Herb Cawthorne, director of the San Diego Urban League.

- An hourlong tribute beginning at 1 p.m. Monday, the official observance of King’s birthday, at the National City Public Library, 200 E. 12th St. The event will include a talk by keynote speaker Fred Pruitt, vice mayor of National City, and a 24-minute movie.

- All city offices will be closed Monday. Metered parking throughout the city will not be enforced, and city trash collection will be postponed one day all week.