Spokane celebrated the 97thanniversary of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior today with its annual rally and march through downtown.
Keynote speaker Stephy Nobles-Beans urged participants to use the late civil rights leader as a guiding force in their own communities and stop treating King as a memory.
“Start treating him like a mission. And as you leave here today, remember, unity is how we stand. Service is how we show up. Justice is how we move forward,” she said. “When you see division, be the bridge. When you see the need, be the help. And when you see the injustice, be the voice.”
The event honored two of the men who organized Spokane’s first MLK Day celebration in 1984.
One was the Reverend Percy “Happy” Watkins, whose recitation of King’s famous 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech became the highlight of the annual King birthday event. Organizers played a 2014 video of Watkins presenting the speech to a group of Jefferson Elementary School students. He died in 2024.
The organizers also gave a community service award in the name of Ivan Bush, a civil rights leader who once worked as the equity officer for Spokane Public Schools. Bush died in 2023. His daughters presented a certificate to a group of young people from the Greater Holy Temple Church of God in Christ, who organized a food drive for people in need.
