The Northern California Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Foundation (NorcalMLK) held its annual commemorative march in San Francisco to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, Jan. 20. The procession, beginning at 11 a.m., spanned around one mile, beginning at the San Francisco Caltrain Station and eventually ending at Yerba Buena Gardens. Participants were able to partake in several events and activities, which included watching speakers, enjoying live music and shopping for goods from local creators and artists.
The march is a symbolic celebration of the Civil Rights Movement and historic Alabama marches from Selma to Montgomery in 1965. MVHS AP Physics 1 and AVID teacher Sushma Bana marched in Monday’s parade, taking advantage of the free celebratory Caltrain tickets to travel to and from the venue. As an Indian immigrant, Bana resonates with the activism of Martin Luther King Jr. because she recognizes parallels between his work and the work of Mahatma Gandhi’s peaceful protests in Indian history.
“What MLK emphasized and fought for are ideals that are timeless,” Bana said. “It’s important to treat others with respect, but also demand to be treated with respect. As an immigrant, so many times subconsciously, we feel that we have to validate or justify that we belong here. The ideas of MLK can guide us through the current turmoil that we have and show how, even if our opinions don’t match, we must still have conversations civilly.”
Vibrant signs with messages advocating against racial inequality and injustice were visible throughout the crowd. Many marchers held up signs featuring King’s quote, “Let justice roll down,” from his iconic “I Have a Dream” speech, and others made their own posters echoing similar sentiments. Having witnessed so many participants congregate together, Bana believes that the march was a celebration of all of the ideals that should be embraced within American society.
“I would not even call it activism,” Bana said. “I think as a citizen, so many times we take things for granted and think, ‘Oh, it doesn’t affect us, why should we do it?’ I feel it is our responsibility to make sure that we make our voices heard and don’t always just think of it in terms of ‘what’s in it for me.’ It’s that feeling of being out there with the community and raising your voice, feeling that your voice matters — that all these little voices combined together can become something significant.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie was among a string of speakers addressing the crowd at Yerba Buena Gardens. Lurie, newly inaugurated, emphasized togetherness in his address, expressing support for the inclusion of Black voices in city legislation and strategies to tackle San Francisco’s high rates of addiction, homelessness and crime.
“San Francisco must be a city where every individual feels safe and empowered,” Lurie said. “That means standing firm against discrimination and fighting for the dignity of all communities, whatever comes our way. Dr. King said that ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ If we ignore suffering, if we look away, then we fail, not just as individuals, but as a community.”
