• March 29th, 2024
  • Friday, 12:08:56 PM

Maintaining Message of Faith in Humanity


After decades of fighting to recognize one of the nation’s greatest leaders, under the leadership of Denver’s African American leadership, the City celebrates the vision and message of Dr. King.

The 2017 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Program and Marade will be held on Monday, January 16, beginning on 9am.

Marade formation will begin immediately following the 9:30 a.m. program. The Marade will start at 10:45 a.m. from the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have A Dream Memorial in City Park, under direction from the podium. The Marade will proceed south out of City Park by way of Esplanade St. to Colfax Avenue; then west on Colfax Avenue to Sherman St into the State Capitol grounds; South to Broadway to Civic Center Park. Motorized vehicles will proceed south on Broadway to 14th Ave. The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. program immediately follows the Marade, in Civic Center Park’s Greek Theater. The Total Distance Equals 5K.

The entire community is invited to participate in the Marade.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was inspired by the moral leadership of Mahatma Gandhi and became convinced that “nonviolent resistance was the most potent weapon available to oppressed people.”

By following Gandhi’s example, King hoped to avoid the bitterness and brutality that would inevitably follow a violent struggle for desegregation in the United States.

Like Gandhi, King paid the ultimate price for his nonviolent political activism. In April of 1968, he was shot to death on the balcony of the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis, Tennessee.

King’s enemies feared his amazing effectiveness — his ability to reach out to people with fiery speeches and make the boundaries between them seem meaningless. He changed the way people perceived each other and challenged all Americans to struggle for equality.

“I urged students to continue the struggle on the highest level of dignity. They had rightly chosen to follow the path of nonviolence. Our ultimate aim was not to defeat or humiliate the white man but to win his friendship and understanding. We had a moral obligation to remind him that segregation is wrong. We protested with the ultimate aim of being reconciled with our white brothers,” King once said.