People take part in Martin Luther King Jr. Day (MLK Day) Parade in San Francisco, the United States, Jan. 20, 2020. (Photo by Li Jianguo/Xinhua)
SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 20 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of people rallied and marched here on Monday, Martin Luther King Jr. Day (MLK Day), in an annual event to honor MLK's legacy of justice and equality.
Many of the participants took California commuter rail service Caltrain from across the Bay Area to head to the commemorative MLK2020 March to honor MLK's pursuit of the dream of freedom, unity and equality.
The demonstrators, waving placards, chanting slogans, beating drums or dancing, started the parade at the San Francisco Caltrain Station on a 2.4-km journey that ended at the downtown Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and Garden, where an interfaith commemoration was held to remember MLK.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed and California State Senator Scott Wiener led the procession, in which a lot of participants including many school children held signs that read "Freedom," "Have A Dream" and "Justice for All."
Breed said she was proud to join the march in honor of MLK to pursue the legacy of his dream to bring equality to everyone. "He believed in equal justice and protection for all people, not just some people," she said.
"I know that I am the dream of Dr. King as the first African American woman to serve as mayor of San Francisco," Breed told the cheering crowd.
She vowed to do more and better to honor MLK's dream of an equal and more just society for all people in San Francisco and the next generation.
King, who was born on Jan. 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, led the U.S. Civil Rights Movement starting in the mid-1950s. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968.
An MLK2020 Parade also took place Monday in other Bay Area cities, including Berkeley, Oakland and San Mateo County.
