‘Please do not forget about us.’ After devastating floods, Merced holds MLK parade

To the sounds of a brass band playing “We Shall Overcome,” a dedicated group of Merced residents marched downtown Saturday morning for the city’s annual parade dedicated to the life of civil rights trailblazer the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Turnout was smaller than previous years, but Saturday’s event took on special significance. That’s because although the march was supposed to be on Jan. 16 to coincide with the MLK holiday, the organizers delayed it a month after devastating floods hit Merced and Planada.

Although the waters have long receded, the flood and those affected remained on the minds of some participants.

Alicia Rodriguez, a longtime Planada activist, told participants that many families in that area still have no permanent residence and are in danger of becoming homeless.

Many of those Planada residents work low-income jobs in the agriculture industry and are renters, which makes them particularly vulnerable. “My community is in such a bad situation,” Rodriguez told those gathered for the event. “Please do not forget about us.”

This year, the parade route began at the Merced Amtrak station and proceeded down Martin Luther King Jr. Way to the Merced Theatre. A celebration was held in the theater after the march.

The Tenaya Middle School Band performed music for the participants along the way.

A dream deferred

The gathering brought together of a hodgepodge of multi-generational residents from many ethnic and cultural backgrounds, some old enough to remember the day King was murdered by an assassin’s bullet at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968.

Tamara Cobb, one of the primary organizers of Saturday’s march, was in the sixth grade on that fateful day. “From that point on, I found my life intertwining with this man. I heard words I had never heard before growing up in my mother’s home. I was exposed to things that no child should be exposed to,” Cobb said.

“As I grew, I wanted to be like that man. I wanted unity. I wanted everybody to play together. I wanted everybody to work together and sit at the same table. I studied this man. I liked (his) dream, his vision, and today as I stand here I want to continue to protect that dream.”

In Saturday’s march, there were also activists in their 20s who weren’t around when King took his strong stance against racial injustice and segregation in the U.S. King also angered many in the U.S. by speaking out against the Vietnam War and the nation’s foreign policy.

Some of the younger folks in the Merced march carried megaphones, shouting slogans such as “Black Lives Matter,” while just a few feet away motorcycle officers with Merced Police Department cleared the way for traffic.

While many of those younger march participants may not have been around during the Civil Rights Movement, they say the deaths of Black people like Tyre Nichols, Tamir Rice, Stephon Clark and others at the hands of law enforcement stands as evidence King’s dream of racial equality is a long way from becoming reality.

There were also a few older marchers who witnessed key moments of the civil rights struggle in Merced, during a time when what’s now known as Martin Luther King Jr. Way was “J Street.”

During the early 1990s, leaders in Merced’s Black community such as the late Charley Huddleston and the late Bishop Dwight Amey spearheaded the movement to change the name of J Street to MLK Way.

Whereas back in those days, activists needed to wage a protracted campaign to get a street named in recognition of MLK, today local city and county officials regularly participate in the march.

Merced Mayor Matthew Serratto rode a horse along the route, while council members Jesse Ornelas, Bertha Perez, Fue Xiong and Shane Smith walked with the procession.

Xiong, who was recently sworn-in to District 6 on the Merced City Council, said the reality that King hoped for when he delivered his “I Have A Dream” speech in 1963 on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, is still a long way from coming true.

Xiong said as Blacks still suffer disproportionately from incarceration rates and gaps in income, there’s still much work to be done.

“People often remember King for his fight for a dream of racial equity. The sad reality is that today we still do not have racial equity. We need to honor King and his dream by acknowledging the racial disparities that still exist today,” XIong said.

Merced County Supervisor Josh Pedrozo, Merced Collge President Chris Vitelli and Superior Court Judge Brian McCabe were also among the familiar faces participating in the event.

Another local politician who participated was Esmeralda Soria, a former Fresno City Council member who was recently elected to represent California’s 27th Assembly District. That area, a newly drawn district, includes a healthy slice of Merced, Madera and Fresno.

Soria, a Democrat who is the daughter of Mexican immigrant farmworkers, acknowledged during the march she stands on the shoulders of civil rights leaders such as King. “He paved the way so we have the opportunities that we have in this country,” she said.

Ogletree remembered

Although many march participants focused on the work that remains to be done for civil rights, others took a moment to also remember the tremendous strides Blacks and other groups have made.

Case in point, on Friday the Merced County Superior Courthouse was named after Charles James Ogletree Jr.

Ogletree, 70, is a native of Merced who rose to prominence as a professor at Harvard Law School, where he was a mentor to future President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama.

Among his most prominent achievements, Ogletree represented survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre, a racially motivated attack against Tulsa’s thriving Black community of Greenwood. He also acted as legal counsel to Professor Anita Hill during the Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings in 1991.

Longtime Merced resident Joe James, who grew up with Ogletree, told the marchers that his childhood friend stands as a symbol of what young people can accomplish.

James said every young person has a gift. “God gives everyone a gift. If you want to be a doctor, lawyer, or the President of the United States, you can do it,” James said.

“I was just amazed when they named that court after Charles James Ogletree Jr.”

This story was originally published February 19, 2023 at 12:21 PM.