MLK Day rivals to hold live parades this year
Both of Houston’s parades celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day are planning to return in 2022, ending a one-year hiatus and setting up a return to the city’s longrunning duel between two events.
The Original Martin Luther King Jr. Parade, organized by the Black Heritage Society and backed by the city, went virtual last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Mayor Sylvester Turner announced Wednesday that is not the plan for the 44th rendition this year.
“We want people to know, the parade will go on,” Turner said during a City Hall news conference. The parade, which dates back to 1978, will begin at Lamar and Smith downtown at 10 a.m. Jan. 17.
Likewise the MLK Grande Parade, which began in 1995, is planning a separate, in-person event in Midtown, according to its website. That also will begin at 10 a.m. at San Jacinto and Elgin streets. Organizers of that event suspended the 2021 edition and rebroadcast the 2020 version last year.
The two parades have feuded for years, sparring over permits, guests and city and corporate support. Turner gave the city’s backing to the Black Heritage Society in 2018, calling for the city to come together and celebrate one event. The next year, MLK Grande invited the mayor’s two foremost opponents, Tony Buzbee and Bill King, to be its grand marshals in 2019, although organizers said their motivation was not political.
Some wondered whether the recent surge of cases, fueled by the fast-spreading omicron variant, would force the city to call for another virtual event this year. Turner said that would not be the case.
He encouraged all attendees to wear masks, get tested for COVID-19 beforehand, and ensure they have all their vaccinations. It did not appear those measures would be required.
Vanessa Wyche, director of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, will serve as the Grand Marshal of the parade.
“I’m just so humbled by this,” said Wyche, who pointed out the agency is working to return to the moon with its first woman astronaut and first astronaut of color.
MLK Grande’s grand marshals are Houston Independent School District Superintendent Millard House II; and Bryan Taulton, superintendent at Coldspring-Oakhurst CISD.
The organizers also have consolidated the parade with their youth parade, which used to occur on the preceding Saturday, according to Charles Stamps, MLK Grande’s founder. And the Black Trail Riders Association, which has done a separate event in the afternoon on MLK Drive, is joining that parade as well, Stamps said.
“As a result, this is the largest event we’ve ever done,” Stamps said. “We like to think it’s the largest event the city has ever seen.”