Thousands gather, march to celebrate 50 years of honoring MLK and unity in Lexington

Thousands lined up in Lexington Monday to march through downtown to commemorate, honor and celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

The 50th annual Freedom March is one of the longest-running celebrations of the celebrated Civil Rights leader’s legacy in Kentucky and possibly the United States.

Tim Mitchell and Gary Blair have been coming to the MLK March and celebration for decades. They aren’t sure how many they have attended. It’s been that long.

Mitchell said he likes to come to see who is marching, particularly when it’s cold, dreary or rainy.

“They didn’t wait until it was 85 to march in Selma,” Blair said as the two waited in front of Central Bank Center prior to the march’s start.

King’s life and accomplishments are worth honoring, Mitchell said.

“I applaud his work,” Mitchell said. “He went to Morehouse at 15…He has a Nobel Peace Prize.”

Lee Ridgeway attended with members of his fraternity. Ridgeway has come for several years.

“We must continue to strive to do better,” Ridgeway said. “We want to continue to keep Dr. King’s message alive. We still have a ways to go.”

The sun also got an invite to Monday’s 50th anniversary march.

It was more than 40 degrees — balmy compared to recent years where temperatures dipped below freezing. In recent years, celebrations were also curtailed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Monday’s Freedom March also saw the usual dignitaries and a who’s who of Lexington and Kentucky. Gov. Andy Beshear, Mayor Linda Gorton and other current and former elected officials attended.

The first march in 1973 on the University of Kentucky’s campus and was a much smaller and muted affair.

Jerry Stevens, then the first head of minority affairs for UK and later Chester Grundy, who has been involved in the celebration for 49 of the 50 years, helped organize a small candle-light march and a program at UK’s Memorial Hall. It attracted between 75 to 100 people, Grundy has said.

In the 1980s, during the push to make MLK Day a national holiday, the march was expanded and included the Lexington-Fayette Urban County Government. The first joint march and celebration was held in 1986.

Saida Grundy, the mistress of ceremonies for the program honoring the 50th anniversary of Lexington’s celebration and an assistant professor at Boston University, said those early days of the march and celebration were not easy for her parents. The Grundys were attacked and threatened for pushing for a federal holiday to celebrate King’s legacy.

“As a small child I was paralyzed with fear of the vulnerability of our family,” Grundy said. “My parent’s explanation, as they consoled me, however, was that this kind of violence are visited upon those who are fighting a fight that can be won.”

The annual celebration has shown there is solidarity and safety in community, Grundy said.

Some said the event was an annual family tradition.

Minnie Trumbo said she started taking her children to the Lexington march years ago. Now her kids take Trumbo’s grandchildren. She has only missed a few marches over the decades.

“It has taught us compassion for others,” Trumbo said of the annual march and celebration.

David Hall, president of the University of the Virgin Islands, gave the keynote address. Hall is known for his work on legal aspects of social justice and race. Hall played basketball for Kansas State University and later played professional basketball in Europe. A lawyer, he has taught law for more than 20 years.

“You started this tradition of honoring this great man long before others decided to do so,” Hall told the packed crowd at the Central Bank Center.

Hall said much of the darkness that King fought against still remains. Hall called on the crowd not to just pause and celebrate on Monday but to go out “and light candles in the dark, hidden places where injustice still exists,” he said.

King was a revolutionary who called for a revolution of values in American and in the world, he said.

“The fruits of Dr. king’s labor have made major differences in this nation,” Hall said. “We walk in places where he could not tread. Yet, white supremacy is alive and well in America.”

Uniting Voices Chicago, formerly the Chicago Children’s Choir, also performed during the ceremony Monday.

Monday’s events were sponsored by UK, the Lexington government, Spectrum, Blue Grass Community Foundation, Cornett, Bluegrass Community and Technical College and Smiley Pete Publishing.

King came to Kentucky multiple times.

In 1964, King and Jackie Robinson attended a march in downtown Frankfort where 10,000 people demanded legislation calling for the end of segregation and discrimination in Kentucky. That wasn’t King’s first stop in Kentucky. His brother was a pastor of a church in Louisville and King visited Kentucky’s largest city often. In 1957, at just 28, King delivered the commencement speech at Kentucky State University.