Rising up in Seattle on Martin Luther King Day

Banner at MLK rally in Seattle.

SEATTLE—Thousands of people marched for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Day in near-freezing weather in Seattle. The theme of the 42nd Annual March here was “Rise Up Against Project 2025,” the GOP/Heritage Foundation’s plan to roll back hard-won gains over the last several decades.

A rally before the march began with the singing of The Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice.” Speakers, singers and dancers followed a brief history of how this day came to be in Seattle and other King-related milestones, such as renaming Empire Way to Martin Luther King Way and renaming King County, Washington to Martin Luther King County.

Former County Councilmember, Larry Gossett, who helped get our county renamed after Dr. King in 1999, spoke of the Seattle/King County African American Reparations Committee. After he finished, petitions were passed all throughout the audience to support the initiative.

There was a focus on the shooting death of local activist, Elijah Lewis, in 2023 and the need to highlight the huge number of unsolved murders in Seattle. Our city has one of the highest rates of unsolved youth murders in the nation.

The rally and march all commenced at Garfield High School in Seattle. Garfield was the alma mater of the amazing musician and recently departed Quincy Jones. During his life he made many donations to public schools in Washington (including Garfield) to enhance music programs. Unfortunately, as one speaker reminded those of us in attendance, since our state has no income tax, funding for music and the arts have fallen by the wayside in Washington. Hence, a “tax the rich” effort to get the multiple billionaires in our state to pay their fare share is under way.

Rev. Dr. Kelle Brown, Senior Pastor at Plymouth Church Seattle UCC, gave a rousing speech and rallied the crowd about how important unity and opposition to the current administration will be to people of all races, sexualities, religions, genders and ages.

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CONTRIBUTOR

Todd Tollefson