11:00am | The streets were lined with people out for a good time. And the Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration didn’t disappoint offering something for everyone on a beautiful sunlit day. The celebration parade included vintage automobiles, motorcycles, horses, Mardi Gras beads and candy flung from cars. BBQ’s, both on the front yards of homes along the parade route and later, in MLK Jr. Park, competed with vendors serving a wide assortment of cultural foods.
Events at MLK Park capped off the day with carnival rides and a reunion by local 1970’s rock legend, WAR, which for contractual reasons performed under the alias, The Lowrider Band. Local officials canvanssased the park including the shouting and laughing Congresswoman Laura Richardson who delighting the crowd with her interpretative dance moves while Brick House by the Commodores blasted from the speakers in front of the main stage. And of course Long Beach Councilman Dee Andrews was, well, just being Dee Andrews. People rushed to greet the charismatic city councilman with outstretched hands only to find them suddenly filled with cameras taken from the purses of women who slipped into the arms of Andrews for a personalized memento of the place to be on this particular day in the grand old city of Long Beach.
It was a great celebration, on a great day…for a great civil rights leader.
Publisher’s note: We mistakenly published just the opening sentence of this story yesterday along with the photo gallery. We have now reposted the story which includes the entire opening content.
