Community turns out for annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Unity Walk
Hundreds attend march, hear speeches in Downtown City Park
– With intermittent rain showers from above, several hundred people turned out for a Unity Walk and Celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Monday afternoon at the Downtown City Park in Paso Robles.
Paso Robles City employee and event organizer Lovella Walker passed out pennants celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Day to people convening at the gazebo. After a duo sang the national anthem, a young student led the Pledge of Allegiance. Then local Reverend Ken Parish shared a prayer that encouraged people to each find their own individual way to make the world a better place.
Lovella Walker hands out pennants
Paso Robles City Councilman Fred Strong talked about his working with Dr. King on proposed Civil Rights legislation back in 1954. Strong was a teenager at the time, but he and King worked together to produce one of the earliest proposals for civil rights legislation. Unfortunately, it was not approved by Congress.
Paso Robles Schools Superintendent Dr. Curt Dubost said 2022 resembles 1968, the year Dr. King and Robert F. Kennedy died. Dubost praised a Unity March to bring people together.
Paso Robles Recreation Manager Lynda Plescia and friend.
Following the speeches, a bagpiper played Amazing Grace, which was written by a clergyman who had previously been a slave trader, and those in attendance set out on a walk around Paso Robles. They headed north on Spring Street, then walked back south and circled around to enter the Downtown City Park near the library entrance. They returned to the gazebo before they dispersed.
Reverend Ken Parish shared a prayer that encouraged people to each find their own individual way to make the world a better place.
The words Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. shared with the world in the ’60s resonated Monday afternoon. Those words reminded those in attendance at the Paso Robles Downtown City Park that his inspiration remains as profound today as it was over fifty years ago.
