King’s legacy, spirit to be on parade in Las Vegas on Monday

Las Vegas will celebrate one of America’s most influential civil rights leaders with a downtown parade Monday.

And as controversy surrounds the recent killings of unarmed black men by white police officers in Ferguson, Mo., and New York, leading organizers of the 33rd annual parade honoring Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said the incidents will not dampen morale.

The parade’s theme, “Living the Dream,” invites participants and attendees to explore the future of race relations in a time of rising tension.

Brenda McKinney, grand marshal of the parade, is the retired former principal of Wendell P. Williams Elementary School. A woman of both African-American and Hispanic ancestry, Mc­Kinney said Americans need to appreciate society’s progress toward racial equality before criticizing its current state.

“I didn’t know in my lifetime that I’d witness an African-American president,” McKinney said in an interview. “Look at where we’ve come from.”

McKinney added that although the deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner — two unarmed black men killed by police officers — represents a step backward in King’s dream for racial equality, the event puts in perspective a vast progress necessary for the future.

“The focus is there that more work needs to be done,” she said.

Monday’s celebration also comes in the midst of heated legislative battles around the country surrounding the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — a landmark act that King supported through its signing into law. A key provision of the law, which placed federal oversight over traditional areas of voter discrimination, was struck down in a 2013 U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

“I think we need to still be very protective on what the law’s original intent was,” said Clark County Commissioner Chris Giunchigliani, a parade float judge, referring to the law’s goal to reduce racial discrimination at voting polls.

Wendell Williams, a former Nevada assemblyman and the man for whom McKinney’s elementary school is named, echoed the words of Giunchigliani and the school’s former principal. Williams, president of the Las Vegas Martin Luther King Jr. Committee and chairman of the parade, said the recent events help illustrate struggles of older generations to today’s youth.

“I think it actually helps the cause of fighting for equality,” Williams said. “A lot of young people were not around during the civil rights movement when those challenges were facing our nation.

“This is the first time a lot of young people have seen the type of controversies of many others that came before them. So we’re hoping it’s not a damper. We’re hoping it’s an incentive to creating an understanding.”

Williams, who founded the parade 33 years ago, has watched the event grow from a neighborhood gathering to a national celebration. Though the first parade in 1982 drew only 13 entries, Williams now declines hundreds of entries annually to limit the event to 100.

“We used to have 200 to 300 entries, and the parade would last until dark,” he laughed.

Williams said this year’s parade will have about 125 to 150 entries, consisting of a variety of school bands, music groups, student organizations and floats. It’s scheduled to start at Fourth Street and Gass Avenue at 10 a.m. and will head north on Fourth to Ogden Avenue. The parade will disperse on Fourth Street and Stewart Avenue around 2 p.m., he hopes.

“It might be more around 2:30, at the latest,” Williams said. “We have so much response, so much demand from people, that it’s hard to say for sure.”

Among parade entries and participants will be California residents who prefer the Las Vegas parade over the King parade in Los Angeles, Williams said.

Other King week events in Las Vegas include a Friday night gospel play at the West Las Vegas Theater and a parade awards breakfast Saturday at the William Pearson Community Center. A full list of events can be found at the organization’s official website, www.kingweeklasvegas.com.

Contact Chris Kudialis at ckudialis@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0283. Find him on Twitter: @kudialisrj.