Local online, in-person events honor legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Most local events to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s work for racial justice were held online Monday, including one organized by Snohomish County’s Black Heritage committee.

“All of us have some places to grow. All of us probably have some blind spots, and there’s room for dividing walls to be broken down,” said Pastor Aaron Thompson with Marysville Foursquare Church during the opening prayer of the Snohomish County event.

In Seattle, at the 39th annual rally and march in honor of MLK, a longtime, local civil rights leader reminded the crowd that King County was originally named after William Rufus King, the 13th Vice President of the United States, and a slave owner.

Former King County Councilmember Larry Gossett recalled a key moment during a speech he gave at Seattle’s MLK commemoration in the early 1980s.

“We should demand that it be changed and named in honor of a true, genuine, democratic, revolutionary progressive brother, Martin Luther King Jr., and the crowd went wild,” he said.

Seattle’s long-ago battle to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

King County made the change official in 1986.

The Northwest African American Museum also held a special, virtual event Monday that will be available to watch on the museum’s YouTube channel if you missed the earlier broadcast. The event included a lineup of community leaders reading civil rights books to children and a keynote program featuring “music of the movement, messages for the moment, and meaningful virtual community connections.”

The KIRO Radio Newsdesk contributed to this report.

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