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*Los Angeles, CA — Adrian Dove, President and CEO, Kingdom Day Parade announced that California U.S. Senator Kamala D. Harris is the Grand Marshal for the 2018 Annual Kingdom Day Parade.
ABC-7 will again broadcast the entire 2 Hour 33rd Kingdom Day Parade Live on Monday, January 15, 2018 from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM.
The 2.5 Mile parade route begins @ 10 AM on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd & Western Avenue, traveling west to Crenshaw, then South on Crenshaw, and ending at Leimert Park and Vernon.
The Kingdom Day Parade honors the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and has grown from its humble beginnings into the largest and longest running Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Birthday Celebration in the nation! This year, 2018 would have been Dr. King’s 89th birthday and is also the 50th Anniversary of his untimely Homegoing. Although he never reached the age of 40, his legacy will live forever. This years’ theme, borrowed from First Lady Michelle Obama is: “When They Go Low, We Go High.”
In 2017, Kamala D. Harris was sworn in as a United States Senator for California. She serves on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on Environment and Public Works, and the Committee on the Budget.
Kamala was elected as the first African-American and first woman to serve as California’s Attorney General. In this role, she worked tirelessly to hold corporations accountable and protect the state’s most vulnerable people.
Dr. Dove remarked, “We reached out to our distinguished Kamala Harris, because she very quickly in her capacity as a Senator, has become the embodiment of America’s struggle to regain our sense of constructive compassion and the pursuit of what Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King, Jr. called the spirit of our better angels”.
The Kingdom Day Parade, was first organized 37 years ago by Johnny Grant as a small local community event in San Diego that spanned only 5 blocks. In 1985, it was moved to Los Angeles and by this year it has grown to enjoy a live TV broadcast on KABC 7 for over 8 years, it now has a media audience of over 2.4 million viewers and listeners.
Several hundred thousand spectators every January line the nearly three (3) mile route which has remained true to its roots, still winding through the same inner-city streets it first began on in south central. Some of the spectators reserve side walk space with sleeping bags, coming out as early as the night before in what has become a unique Los Angeles tradition.
In deepest respect for the legacy of Dr. King the parade features more than 150 units involving over 3,000 individuals which include; the “Kingdom Day Parade Queen & Her Royal Court”, elaborate floats, marching bands, high school & middle school drill teams, novelty acts, equestrian units, and an exciting turn out of celebrities and community leaders.
Congresswoman Maxine Waters was the January 2017 Grand Marshal and among other past Parade Grand Marshals are, Stevie Wonder, The Godfather of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Birthday holiday national recognition, Congresswoman Karen Bass, Governor Jerry Brown, Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, Mayor Eric Garcetti, Councilmembers Herb J. Wesson, III and Curren Price, Steve Harvey, LA Dodger’s Star Matt Kemp, businessman Danny Bakewell, Sr., Little Richard, Debbie Allen, former Police Chief Bernard Parks, and a host of others.
The Kingdom Day Parade’s community and corporate supporters include; its Presenting Sponsor Blue Shield of California, the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital, Denny’s Crenshaw, Covered California, Farmers Insurance, Los Angeles Unified School District, Downtown LA Motors, Baldwin Hills Crenshaw, U.S. Bank, METRO, KJLH Radio, KNBC Channel 4, 93.5 KDAY, KTLA Channel 5, McDonalds, and LAUSD’s Beyond The Bell.
The mission of the Kingdom Day Parade and CORE-California, in strategic collaboration with corporate sponsors and the County and City of Los Angeles, together with the State of California, is to celebrate the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in the form of its Annual Kingdom Day Parade and other activities which promote keeping his Dream alive which helps to sustain his message of fighting for equality and agape to all mankind, continuing his fierce fight against injustice using love as its weapon.
About Kamala D. Harris, U.S. Senator for California
In 2017, Kamala D. Harris was sworn in as a United States Senator for California, the second African-American woman and first South Asian-American senator in history. She serves on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the Select Committee on Intelligence, the Committee on Environment and Public Works, and the Committee on the Budget.
In 2003, Kamala became the District Attorney of the City and County of San Francisco. Having completed two terms as the District Attorney of San Francisco, Kamala was elected as the first African-American and first woman to serve as California’s Attorney General. In this role, she worked tirelessly to hold corporations accountable and protect the state’s most vulnerable people.
In the United States Senate, Kamala’s mission remains unchanged: fighting for the rights of all communities in California. Since taking office, she has introduced and cosponsored legislation to raise wages for working people, reform our broken criminal justice system, make healthcare a right for all Americans, address the epidemic of substance abuse, support veterans and military families, and expand access to childcare for working parents.
It’s the privilege of Kamala’s life to work on behalf of the people of California. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Doug Emhoff, and is stepmother to Ella and Cole Emhoff.
https://www.harris.senate.gov
https://www.facebook.com/SenatorKamalaHarris/
https://twitter.com/SenKamalaHarris
About the Kingdom Day Parade
Kingdom Day Parade in Los Angeles, is a lot more than just another parade. It celebrates and centers around the only national and local holiday whose central purpose is to celebrate equality and justice for all people and to fight for it using the weapon of love and peace. In the current year, the mission of bringing people together is needed more than ever. The Kingdom Day Parade and its fiscal agent, CORE-CA has a twelve month focus on bringing people together in harmony and the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It was conceived more than 37 years ago by the late Larry Grant and businessman Celes King III as a small neighborhood tribute to the life, work, dream, and spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. It was launched in San Diego and after five years it moved to South Central Los Angeles about the same time as another local hero; Stevie Wonder, was culminating a successful nationwide effort that resulted in Dr. King’s birthday becoming a National Holiday, on the third Monday in January of every year. After the untimely death, six years ago, of the original founder Larry Grant, Dr. Adrian Dove, the parade’s then long-time Financial Manager and Chairman of CORE-CA, the parade’s fiscal agent stepped forward to sustain the legacy and has continued at the helm of the parade ever since with the help of a strong team of volunteers and professional staff. Dove is a former field staffer who worked under Dr. King as a voter registration worker in the Deep South during the 60s. Our original group of sponsors and participants have nurtured those humble beginnings which persisted every year, until it evolved into the major iconic event it has become today. Remaining on the same inner-city streets it began on. The Parade is committed to nurturing Dr. King’ s spirit for equality of life, using love and nonviolence as the primary weapon to become a participant, volunteer, sponsor or for more information, visit our website at: www.kingdomdayparade.org
FaceBook: www.facebook.com/kingdomdayparade
Twitter: www.twitter.com/kingdayparade
Instagram: www.instagram.com/kingdomdayparade
source:
Edna Sims – ESP Public Relations – [email protected]
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