San Diego City College students and faculty joined the San Diego Community College District contingent to walk in the 44th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade on The Embarcadero in San Diego on Sunday, Jan. 18.
Floats, marching bands and representatives from dozens of community-based organizations commemorated the life and legacy of the late civil rights activist.
King’s legacy of nonviolent protest and uniting for racial and economic equality was cemented with the designation of every third Monday in January as a federal holiday in 1983.
The annual parade featured over 80 organizations and included a 5K and a recently added health fair, according to Ken Barnes, a long-time volunteer with the event’s organizer, the Zeta Sigma Lambda chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha.
“Participation is down this year compared to other years,” Barnes said. “Not sure why, maybe the climate out there, but I’m not sure.”
The parade comes at a time when the Trump administration and the conservative-leaning Supreme Court, of which Trump has appointed three new justices, threatens to further weaken the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
In addition to potentially undercutting the landmark legislation King helped enact, the Trump administration’s immigration policies and anti-DEI demands in higher education have had district officials on alert since the start of the academic year.
“Many faculty and administrators in education across the country have been targeted, disciplined, or dismissed for exercising their right to free speech and academic freedom across political ideologies, religious affiliations, any many other social constructs,” SDCCD Chancellor Greg Smith wrote in an email to faculty and staff last September. “These events are distressing and concern us all.”
On Sunday, students from City College and the SDCCD’s three other campuses – Mesa, Miramar and Continuing Education – marched together with signs and smiles to greet the hundreds of observers who lined the mile-long parade route along Harbor Boulevard.
Marciano Perez, vice president of student services at City College, has been attending the march since his days working at UCSD, before joining City College in 2016.
“It really is a community event,” Perez said. “I’m really happy so many people turned out.”
Click the image below to view a photo gallery from the day’s event.
This story was edited by Brianna Bush.
