Marching bands from Northside High School in Shelby and Charleston High School are scheduled to participate in Charleston’s 16th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade on Monday, Jan. 16.
The parade, whose theme is “Together We Can Be the Dream,” is scheduled to get underway at noon.
Lineup for the parade will begin at 11 a.m., on South Franklin Street near Family Dollar store.
The procession will turn easterly onto Main Street, eventually rounding the south side of the Tallahatchie County Courthouse.
Retired longtime East Tallahatchie School District educator Lillie Grant is grand marshal.
“Churches, clubs, groups, organizations and anyone else that would like to participate in the parade are welcome,” said Carolyn Johnson, an organizer of the event, which is sponsored by a local committee.
Entry in the parade is free, and those who take part are asked to display a sign or banner honoring Dr. King.
Trophies will be awarded, Johnson said.
For more information, contact Johnson at 662-647-1346 or Lillie Smith at 662-625-2055.
The Jan. 16 festivities, and similarly styled celebrations across the United States, are a part of the federal holiday begun in 1986 to observe King’s birthday each year on the third Monday of January, which is around the time of his actual birthday, Jan. 15.
King, who once came to Charleston as part of his work for nonviolent activism and social reform during the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s, was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on April 4, 1968. He was 39 years old. The Lorraine is now part of the National Civil Rights Museum.
