The annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day “Marade” returns to Denver on Monday morning and will result in closures and delays along Colfax Avenue around noon.
The event starts with speeches at the base of the Martin Luther King Memorial in City Park at 10 a.m. Organizers plan on walking along Colfax Avenue to the Capitol starting at 11:45 a.m. Motorists are urged to avoid the area.
The National Weather Service forecasts sunny skies and a high of 47 degrees. But bundle up if you’re planning to go to the kickoff at City Park when the temperature is expected to be 33 degrees. The weather will be much nicer than last year, when the high temperature was 1 degree, with windchill as low as -12.
Marade, a combination of march and parade, is a term unique to Denver. It’s meant to celebrate the legacy of the civil rights movement, while also acknowledging the political reality that there is more work to be done.
In recent years, Marade organizers have focused on voter rights, and this year the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a ruling that could curtail a pillar of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 — the ability to consider race in the drawing of electoral maps.
