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URGENT: The MLK Parade Is In Danger of Being Cancelled

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The CARE Rockbridge Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Parade is in danger of being cancelled by a proposed city policy. The proposed policy would require CARE to pay for the policing provided to defend marchers from potential violence. The parade originated as a response to KKK blanketing of local lawns with promotional information twice in 2016. Because white supremacy lurks as threat, police presence is needed.

Costs are too high for CARE to pay, and the proposed fees would result in the canceling of the parade.

But, more importantly, CARE assembles in the streets once every year in order to speak up for racial justice and the equality of all. By assembling and speaking publicly, we avail ourselves of fundamental rights guaranteed in the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.

Yes, there are policing costs in defending an annual public assembly in which we raise voices in support of a just, equal political community. But the defense of the basic constitutional rights of the citizens of this community is the very reason that we citizens have forces of law and order. The police exist to protect our political rights.

Should Council take the position that a peaceful assembly calls for further movement toward justice and equality can only happen if private organizations pay for the privilege of police protection, the City will be moving us backward to the era in which leaders like the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. marched without permits and through violent attacks to defend the constitutional claims of racial equality and the equal rights of all to assemble and speak.

The city manager’s proposed policies advance the idea that political expression is just one menu item in the “mix of events” that Lexington has. This is to get things completely backwards. Lexington, itself, is an expression of citizens’ political opinions. The citizens’ political assembly and speech are fundamental to our common endeavor as a community in a constitutional republic. The city government and its forces of law and order are obliged to protect that constitutional pursuit.

Please attend the Lexington City Council Meeting on Thursday, August 20, 7:00 PM at the Rockbridge County Administrative Offices, 150 South Main Street, Lexington. You may ask to speak in the citizens comment period, or you may simply be present to support those who will speak.

Read the proposed policy changes here

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Like many of you, the team at CARE Rockbridge has been worried about the state of democracy in the United States in recent years. We have followed with horror as people of color have been targeted as “presumed illegals,” and recoiled at the treatment of immigrants and the violence meted out to our fellow citizens trying to protect them. We vigorously oppose the corrosion of the rights of LGBTQ+ people. We have grave concerns about the effects of the Supreme Court’s dismantling of most protections of the Voting Rights Act.

250 years ago, when the Declaration of Independence was signed, the communities that became our nation lived in the midst of uncertainty and violence. The moment of the signing was hardly one that lived up to the signers’ claim that “all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.” From the very beginning, the exclusion of all women, enslaved persons, and indigenous peoples has troubled any reading of the Declaration.

Nonetheless, at the moment of their writing, these were beautiful values to proclaim as the organizing aims of a revolutionary, new political community; values that have encouraged people over the last two and a half centuries to organize and demand a nation to match. The fact is that, as we in CARE work together with our community toward the revolutionary combination of Justice, Love, and Equality, we are honoring the best of a shared political project that is now 250 years old.

Happy Fourth! Let’s be proud of our grand political dreams, and undaunted by the challenges that surround us.

CARE Rockbridge expresses its sorrow for the sudden loss of Lexington Mayor Frank Friedman. We fondly remember Frank’s lively connection with and support of Lexington’s community. We know that all of us have our own memories of our gregarious Mayor Friedman. One special memory we have is of Frank dancing with one and all on Hopkins Green at the 2019 Latino Community Heritage Festival. Peace to you, Frank, and to your family.

Tenth Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Parade
Monday, January 19, 2025, 10:30 AM
Randolph Street United Methodist Church (118 South Randolph Street Lexington, VA 24450)

Coverage from the Lexington News Gazette:

Coverage from WNRN Radio:

Coverage from the Ring-tum Phi:

5th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Celebration
Stand Up for Justice, Love, and Equality

(A public health-conscious alternative to the MLK Parade of previous years)

January 18, 2021, 10:30 a.m.
Downtown Lexington, Virginia!

Stand Up T-Shirts Available Now! Order Early! Makes a great holiday gift. We also have a selection of CARE themed Winter Hats!
Go to CARE Store.

Due to pandemic health concerns, this year’s celebration is designed toallow community members to find and maintain a distanced space to demonstrate public commitment to an equal and inclusive community. For the health and safety of yourself and others please wear face coverings. We will Stand Up for Justice, Love, and Equality in the streets of our Community!

We will simultaneously use a rectangle of streets at the heart of our parade route. The Stand Up will begin at 10:30 and finish at 10:45. Participants should begin taking spaces in the street at 10:15 a.m. and no earlier than 10 a.m. We will finish before 11:00 a.m.

Participants will be directed to open spaces with assistance of our Marshals. For the health and safety of yourself and others please wear face coverings. All participants not dependent on the physical assistance of others will stand as single individuals. We will direct participants to find spots that are isolated by a minimum of 6 feet on all sides.

Distancing is not only for safety. It is also our attempt to symbolically occupy community space and hold up all the lives, especially black and brown, lost to Covid and to racist violence this year. So we are creating empty spaces amongst us as an important part of the event.

We will use photography, professional drone imagery, and individual selfies (bring your phones!) to capture a images of a community that is claiming its streets for nonviolence.

For further details, please read our participation and safety guidelines here.

For updates, visit our facebook page.