Despite the thermometer hovering between -3 and 5 degrees on Monday morning, hundreds of people gathered in Denver’s City Park at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial statue for the 39th annual Marade.
“It’s great to see so many people out here,” said attendee Maurice Jewell, as crystals of ice formed in his beard. “We are honoring a legacy of peace in Denver.”
Volunteers gave out coffee, hot chocolate and hand warmers while recordings of Martin Luther King Jr.’s most famous speeches played out over a speaker in the bed of a truck.
Elementary school student Rose Writz braved the cold with her mom, Mary. “My sign says ‘He had a dream’ and ‘peace and friendship’,” she said holding her handmade poster.
“I think participating matters,” Mary Writz said. “I never had a chance to do this as a kid, and I'm thankful to live here and get to be here with her today.”
The ceremony was limited this year due to the frigid temperatures, but still featured a prayer invocation, the passing of the torch and a roster of speakers including former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and his wife, former Colorado State Representative Wilma Webb.
The couple championed a years-long effort to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a holiday in Colorado and raised the funds necessary to erect the City Park statue honoring his legacy.
“We are a hearty people here in Colorado,” said former Mayor Webb as he took the stage. “You don’t see people gathering like this in Mississippi, but we’re not afraid of anything.”
“This man stood for peace. He died for peace. He worked for peace. He loved peace, and he cared about people,” said former Rep. Webb, looking over her shoulder at the snow-dusted statue of Martin Luther King Jr. “His very last speech was, where do we go from here? That's still the question today. Where do we go from here?”
She encouraged attendees to look beyond themselves and stay vigilant in honoring King’s legacy and his dreams. And she warned against misinformation, noting that the social media company Meta recently stepped away from fact checking posts.
“We need to be able to verify whether or not somebody's telling the truth,” she said. “So we have to watch out for that. And we also must continue to have peace in the world. There are efforts going on now to bring about peace agreements, but they're not guaranteed.”
Former Mayor Webb thanked attendees for exercising their rights to vote and assemble, and directed some of his words at local leaders, reminding them to have “no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, only permanent interests.”
And, while wearing a CU beanie to stave off the cold, Webb called on the University of Colorado to do more to elevate Black voices in leadership positions.
“We need direct action so that people understand that we are serious and do business, that we can do more than just march and sing, we can do more than dribble and shoot, we can do more than throw passes and catch passes,” he said, referring to the university’s sports programs. “We also have the ability to think and bring people together.”
According to the school’s leadership page, no current cabinet members are Black.
Denver Mayor Mike Johnston, State Senate President James Coleman and Democratic Rep. Jason Crow also spoke to the crowd before the wreath laying ceremony.
Crow, who skipped president Donald Trump’s inauguration to attend, told the crowd “I can’t tell you how much better it is to be here with you all than in Washington right now. There’s no doubt in my mind right now that here is where I need to be.” He also thanked the Webbs for their leadership in Colorado and for serving as his mentors.
Several of the event’s Democratic speakers seemed to allude to the transition in Washington in their remarks.
“He showed up no matter how hard it was, no matter how cold it was, no matter how steep the hill was,” said Mayor Johnston, remarking on the resilience of Martin Luther King Jr. “So it can feel steep today. It can feel cold today, but you should also, in the spirit of the man in which we gather, know that in these days when the trials are toughest – is when we are closest, when we're most committed, when we're most strong.”
