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Baltimore’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade returned Monday for the first time since the start of the pandemic, coming together in the span of only a few days after a flap over whether the event would be held at all this year.
Blue skies and temperatures in the mid-50s greeted those who turned out for the annual event, which followed a weeklong saga that culminated in the resignation of the head of the city’s arts council.
Kicking off the festivities, Mayor Brandon Scott reiterated the day’s theme of anti-violence, a core tenet of the slain civil rights leader’s work. “We must stop killing each other,” Scott told the crowd during brief opening remarks.
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The gathering included familiar faces such as U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume, a Baltimore Democrat and former head of the NAACP who had lambasted the initial decision to cancel the event. He called it an important tradition for a city still struggling to untangle its racist past from its current legacy.
Also marching were members of the mayor’s Office of Equity and Civil Rights and the men’s unity organization We Our Us, whose members chanted: “We all we got, we all we need!”
Marchers also included newly installed Baltimore State’s Attorney Ivan Bates, City Council President Nick Mosby, state Sen. Antonio Hayes and state Del. Caylin Young.
In the weeks leading up to the parade, the Baltimore Office of Promotion & the Arts — the city’s contracted events coordinator and cultural arts director — said the show would not go on as scheduled this year. Initially, a spokeswoman for Scott said the arts organization and the mayor’s office made the decision jointly and planned a community-wide day of service for the city instead.
Then, facing pressure from members of the City Council and Baltimore’s artisan community, BOPA shifted blame for the parade’s cancelation to the mayor’s office, saying it did not have “unilateral” authority to call off events. Scott responded by calling for BOPA head Donna Drew Sawyer to resign and announcing that the mayor’s office would take over responsibility for planning and staging the parade.
With Scott threatening to pull funding from the organization next fiscal year, Sawyer resigned last week, and the mayor poached a senior BOPA staffer to act as an arts liaison. That left his office and several city agencies with only a few days to prepare for the parade, a heavy lift that involves coordinating plans for public safety, street cleaning, sanitation, permitting and road closures.
In an interview with the Baltimore Banner last week, Scott said that other events executed by his office had “gone without a hitch and have been extremely, wildly successful.”
Any shortcomings of Monday’s parade weren’t felt by attendees, some of whom danced along to the beat of the drums, waved to motorcyclists, and cheered and clapped as Black fraternities, faith-based groups and social justice organizations passed by for the nearly 90-minute procession.
The parade did not want for pomp and circumstance: the procession included a line of Corvette sport cars, marching bands and a motorcade.
“The fact that they put this together in less than a week, I’m very impressed,” said Joseph Christian, a Park Heights native who has made a habit of coming to watch the parade since he was a boy. “It’s a great effort.”
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City workers across departments — recreation and parks, transportation and police, among others — helped direct traffic and keep crowds organized. Jason W. Mitchell, the Department of Public Works director who, facing criticism from City Council members, announced plans to resign this spring, marched with public works staff.
King made several trips to Baltimore during his career; he gave a guest sermon at the city’s New Shiloh Baptist Church; received an honorary law doctorate from then-Morgan State College; spoke before a crowd of 8,000 at the Baltimore Civic Center, now called CFG Bank Arena; and held a press conference at the Lord Baltimore Hotel. He missed a scheduled trip to Baltimore in March 1968 to march with striking sanitation workers in Memphis, where he was assassinated on April 4, 1968. He was 39.
Baltimore, like other cities, erupted upon the news of King’s death; here, the unrest lasted from April 6 to April 14, 1968. Then-Gov. Spiro Agnew called in troops from the National Guard and would later criticize Black leaders for not doing more to quell the disturbance. That caught the attention of Republican presidential candidate Richard Nixon, who asked Agnew to run on his presidential ticket later that year.
For those with ties to the city, the parade represents one way to honor the past.
“I’m happy they did this,” said Shelly-Ann Higgins, a teacher who came to cheer on some of her students in the parade. “The marching bands — these guys dropped everything to do this. People were on at the ready.”
hallie.miller@thebaltimorebanner.com
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Hallie Miller covers housing for The Baltimore Banner. She's previously covered city and regional services, business and health at both The Banner and The Baltimore Sun.
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