People filled 23rd Ave, all marching from Garfield High School to the Federal Building downtown to celebrate Martin Luther King’s life and dream. The annual march in Seattle is one of the largest MLK Day marches in the nation.
Participants had many causes, from people protesting police brutality to people carrying signs reading “Tax the Rich.” One anti-nuclear weapons group carried a large inflatable missile. There was also a small marching band and representatives from various organizations.
At a rally in Garfield High School gym before the march, keynote speaker Pastor Robert Jeffrey of New Hope Baptist Church urged marchers to “Let justice flow down like water.” He spoke against many “nightmares” in our community today, such as the wars abroad and high unemployment rates among black youth.
Dr. King came to Seattle once in 1961 and gave a lecture at Garfield High School November 10 that year. According to History Link, he then requested to go to a Central District barbecue restaurant where he spent hours with his old friend Reverend Samuel B. McKinney of Brotherhood of Mount Zion Baptist Church.
UPDATE: Reader Truman Buffett sent us the following photos from the rally and march. See the rest here (you can even buy prints *wink*).
I’ve posted a dozen pics from today’s MLK Day events here:
http://bit.ly/MLK-Day-2011