Wake-Up Call: MLK Day's march of history

The country's largest parade in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. will kick off this morning in Denver, Colorado, a mid-sized city with a small black population, but a big record of fighting for equality. Wilma Webb, then a state legislator, was instrumental in pushing to make MLK Day a...

By Patricia Calhoun

January 18, 2010

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The country's largest parade in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. will kick off this morning in Denver, Colorado, a mid-sized city with a small black population, but a big record of fighting for equality.

Wilma Webb, then a state legislator, was instrumental in pushing to make MLK Day a holiday; Colorado approved her proposal in 1984, two years before the first official national celebration on January 20, 1986. In 1991, Wilma Webb's husband, Wellington, became Denver's first black mayor. And in August 2008, on the fortieth anniversary of King's "I Have a Dream" speech, Barack Obama made his acceptance speech as the Democratic candidate for President of the United States.

When the Marade starts today at 9 a.m. in City Park, there will be history in every step.

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Patricia Calhoun is editor-in-chief of Westword, the alt-weekly she co-founded in September 1977. She’s been inducted into the Colorado Press Association Hall of Fame, the Association of Alternative Newsmedia Hall of Fame and the Colorado Restaurant Association Hall of Fame. She’s also received dozens of local, state and national awards for writing, including first place for feature writing and first place for column writing with the Society of Professional Journalists. Patricia is a weekly commentator on Colorado Inside Out, PBS 12's public affairs roundtable, which has won two Emmys.

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