On Monday, Jan. 15, the City of Charleston's local organizations marched on the downtown pavement in the 46th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade. Lowcountry schools, churches, armed services and charitable non-profit associations and more came out to commemorate Reverend Dr. King's birthday and life's accomplishments in the United States Civil Rights movement.
MLK in Charleston
King made two separate visits to Charleston's 'Holy City' in 1962 and 1967. The former came at Emanuel AME Church, in which King tried to urge members of the congregation to register to vote, according to the church's website.
The latter in King's speech at Charleston County Hall on King St. which garnered much more political importance and attracted more media and fanfare. He spoke to an audience of approximately 3,000 who congregated on that humid July day to hear the praise from the iconic Civil Rights leader.
"I come here not as an outsider but as an insider with real associations and connections in the state of South Carolina and in Charleston," King said.
"We live in America. We have to face the fact that, honestly, racial discrimination is present. So don't get complacent. We made some strides. We made some progress here and there and it hasn't been enough. It hasn't been fast enough. We still have a long, long, way to go," King said.
On April 4, 1968, eight months after King's visit to Charleston, he was shot to death at a motel in Memphis, Tenn while protesting the Memphis Sanitation Workers Strike.