The 41st Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parade is expected to roll through downtown Las Vegas on Monday morning.
The Las Vegas spectacle, this year celebrating what would have been the civil rights leader’s 94th birthday, debuted in January 1982.
Participants in the parade, expected to feature floats, marching performance groups, community organizations with banners and slowly motorized dignitaries, celebrities and regular folks, are expected to start lining up at 8 a.m. at Fourth Street and Gass Avenue.
The parade, organized by the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Committee in Las Vegas, commences at 10 a.m. at Fourth and Gass and proceeds down Fourth to Ogden Avenue. Monday’s forecast calls for rain so dress accordingly.
This year’s parade theme is “Living the Dream – It Starts with Me (Shifting Priorities to Create the Beloved Community).”
The event’s grand marshals include Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, Las Vegas Raiders president Sandra Douglass Morgan, Las Vegas Aces president Nikki Fargas, Justyn Boumah, the 7-year-old founder and chief executive of Heroes & Hearts and The Traveling Toddler, and Ava, an 8-year-old entrepreneur, violinist, and Raiderette cheerleader, the parade website states.
Charlene Thomas-Swinson, an assistant coach for the Aces, is to serve as parade awards judge.
Parade sponsors include MGM Resorts International, Caesars Entertainment, Nevada Help Desk, Boyd Gaming Corp., KSNV-TV, and Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
The parade is central to a succession of events for what’s known as King Week. It started Friday with the Technology Summit, then the MLK Committee Scholarship Annual Awards Banquet that took place Saturday and the Interfaith Service that was on Sunday .
The Ultimate Measure of a Man Speaker Series takes place Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the Sahara West Library, 9600 W. Sahara Ave., and capping the week will be the Directors Breakfast and Parade Awards on Jan. 21 at 9 a.m. at the Martin Luther King Jr. Senior Center, 2420 N. Martin Luther King Blvd. B, North Las Vegas.
Contact Jeff Burbank at jburbank@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0382. Follow him @JeffBurbank2 on Twitter.