‘More important now.’ Lexington to celebrate Martin Luther King Day with march, film
After a year that highlighted the need to continue the fight against racism, Lexington’s annual Freedom March honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. will go on this year, though coronavirus has made some changes necessary, organizers say.
“We are living in times that are so closely imitating things that happened in his lifetime,” said LeTonia Jones, who co-chairs the program committee for the celebration.
King’s legacy, she said, “is what keeps pushing people forward.”
“He kept moving, no matter what,” Jones said. “Ultimately, his life was taken, but he was still in motion, even in that moment.”
This is the 48th year for the march, Jones said. She said the event has been canceled only once in its history, and that was because there was ice and two feet of snow on the ground.
“This is built on a really, really firm, solid and committed foundation,” she said.
“I remember participating in the MLK Freedom March since I was a teen in my church youth group,” Lexington councilman James Brown, who co-chairs the MLK Day holiday committee, said in a news release from the University of Kentucky. “This march and program seem so much more important now, especially with all that was exposed in 2020. To achieve true social justice and awareness, it’s going to take all of our voices and action.”
This year’s celebration will be entirely outdoors.
“It still requires people to be vigilant about their own care for themselves,” Jones said.
Participants at Monday’s march should wear a mask or other protective covering and plan to line up on their own “in a physically distanced fashion,” according to the news release. There will be no reserved spots for groups this year.
The march will begin on High Street outside the Central Bank Center, formerly known as the Lexington Convention Center, and will end at Triangle Park. Streets will be closed at 9:45 a.m., and the march will begin at 10 a.m.
Free parking is available in the Central Bank Center lot on High Street.
After the march, Jones said organizers are asking participants to disperse immediately.
Typically, the march is followed by a program at the convention center that usually includes musical performances and speakers.
This year, that event has been replaced with a film by Joan Brannon, a percussionist and Lexington native who now lives in Louisville.
The hour-long documentary, “Fire and Heart: A Blueprint for Liberation,” will debut on the Lexington MLK Holiday YouTube page at noon Monday and will be available on several platforms in January and February.
The film focuses on the efforts of activists and community members in Lexington and Louisville who were motivated by the shooting death of Breonna Taylor last year. Taylor’s death at the hands of Louisville police sparked protests throughout the nation and has led to the passage new legislation, including Breonna’s Law, which banned no-knock warrants in Louisville.
“Louisville became ground zero, to an extent,” Jones said. “We’re capturing the voices that were at the forefront of that as best we can.”
A trailer for the film is live on YouTube now. Several Lexington residents are featured, including David Cozart, Ann Grundy, Chester Grundy, Sarah Williams, Rev. L. Clark Williams and Jones.
This story was originally published January 15, 2021 at 5:52 PM.
