City council to consider MLK Day parade in Elk Grove

About two hundred people participated in the impromptu MLK Day march on January 15, 2018, in Elk Grove.  | 

November 12, 2018 |  

At their Wednesday, November 14 meeting, the Elk Grove City Council will hear a presentation proposing the establishment of a parade to commemorate the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 

The proposal to establish the parade came after the city council heard public testimony at their January 24, 2018 meeting urging the matter. Days earlier a well-attended impromptu march on Martin Luther King Jr. Day along Elk Grove Boulevard in Old Town Elk Grove was held.   

According to the report, annually there are nine parades conducted in the city, with five sponsored by area high schools, the Veterans Day parade, the Western Festival, and two during the Christmas Holiday season. Although the parades are sanctioned by the city, all are independently organized.  

The estimated cost to organize the event would be approximately $24,000. During their research on the parade, city staff contacted organizers of the MLK 365 celebration in Sacramento who, according to the report, expressed their desire that Elk Grove does not hold a competing event, and instead be a sponsor of the regional event. 

Among the options that will be presented to the city council are to proceed with an event in Elk Grove, provide financial sponsorship to the MLK365 event, or the development of another plan. 

The march earlier this year was held on January 15 and drew approximately two hundred participants. The event was organized in part by the Sacramento chapter of Black Lives Matter and several Elk Grove residents. 

Among the speakers at the march were Elk Grove resident Sonia Lewis of the Sacramento chapter of BLM, Sharie Wilson, owner of a business in Old Town Elk Grove that was targeted last year by hate messages, Rev. Les Simmons of South Sacramento Christian Center, and Christopher Hoffman, Superintendent of the Elk Grove Unified School District.

Wednesday's city council meeting at city hall starts at 6 p.m.