The rescheduled 40th annual Kingdom Day Parade took to the streets of Los Angeles on Monday morning. The event was postponed due to the deadly Southern California wildfires last month.
The annual parade honors the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The civil rights icon was assassinated on April 4, 1968. On Nov. 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the bill declaring Martin Luther King Jr. Day a federal holiday.
A staunch supporter of making this happen was Grammy-winning singer Stevie Wonder.
In 2023, the Motown icon revealed on X how difficult it was and how he had to be persistent.
“Forty years ago without an electronic world- no email, no internet- we found a way to beat the odds and we did what Dr. King would have wanted,” he explained. “We found the humanity in people who have passionately disagreed with us. We reached across differences and in August 1983 the bill to make Dr. King’s birthday a national holiday passed the Democratic House of Representatives 338 to 90. In October of 1983, that bill passed the Republican Senate 78 to 22 and President Ronald Reagan signed that bill into law in November of 1983.”
In 1981, Wonder released the popular song “Happy Birthday,” from his album “Hotter Than July,” to honor King and to push for his birthday to be a national holiday. He even held rallies at the Capitol to further his cause. The “Isn’t She Lovely?” singer stopped touring for three years to make the national holiday and the Kingdom Day parade possible.
“You should know that Stevie Wonder really sacrificed for the Kingdom Day event and federal holiday, as well as this parade, to happen,” explained KTLA 5’s Gayle Anderson. “So, the next time you see or hear Stevie Wonder, thank him for his service.”
Wonder was the first Grand Marshal of the Kingdom Day Parade’s first annual parade, and the event’s organizers continue to honor his work in making this all possible.
The Kingdom Day Parade started Monday morning at the intersections of Western and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevards.
For more information, visit KingdomDayParade.org.
