As hard as it might be to believe, there was a time when some people didn't care for the Martin Luther King Jr. Kingdom Day Parade in South Los Angeles.
Organizers lobbied hard to persuade people to even ride in the first one in 1986. Tom Bradley, Los Angeles' black mayor, didn't take part for its first six years.
And some questioned whether the celebration was an appropriate tribute to the slain civil rights leader.
But over the years, the parade has grown to become Southern California's largest celebration of King, attracting tens of thousands of spectators, and is a must for politicians, high school marching bands, taekwondo students and even mariachi bands.
Today's parade, on Martin Luther King Day, begins at 10:30 a.m. It will head west from Western Avenue down West Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, then south on Crenshaw Boulevard, ending at Leimert Park, where a festival will be held. KNBC-TV Channel 4 will broadcast the parade live from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
"Now everyone wants to be a part of it," said Aundrae Russell, program director for KJLH-FM (102.3), an Inglewood radio station that has been affiliated with the parade since its first year in South Los Angeles.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca, L.A. City Council members and other lawmakers are expected to participate.
Russell said that cities such as Inglewood and Long Beach hold their King Day events on other days.
"They know everyone wants to be in this one," he said.
The person who has largely kept the parade going is its founder, Larry Grant, an energetic 80-year-old retired banker.
Grant said he began working on the idea for a parade in 1980, three years before Congress passed legislation creating the King holiday.
Then the president of Pacific Coast Bank in San Diego, Grant was dismayed at the sight of teenagers drinking beer at a corner liquor store; when he confronted them, they said they didn't care to go to school.
Grant said he thought a parade might help inspire African American youths to get their minds back on education.
"Everyone loves a parade," Grant said last week. "Maybe we can get some African American dignitaries and give some of these youngsters food for thought."
After launching a King Day parade in San Diego in 1981, Grant decided to bring it to Los Angeles after he retired. He teamed up with the late Celes King III, a bail bondsman and black activist who was the founding state chairman of the Congress of Racial Equality and was instrumental in renaming South L.A.'s Santa Barbara Avenue to Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in 1983.
