{"id":61007,"date":"2026-01-14T17:49:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T22:49:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=61007"},"modified":"2026-01-14T17:53:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T22:53:20","slug":"lakeland-will-celebrate-the-civil-rights-leaders-enduring-legacy-with-special-events-and-its-48th-annual-parade-this-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2026\/01\/14\/lakeland-will-celebrate-the-civil-rights-leaders-enduring-legacy-with-special-events-and-its-48th-annual-parade-this-saturday\/","title":{"rendered":"Lakeland will celebrate the civil rights leader\u2019s enduring legacy with special events and its 48th annual parade this Saturday."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The city of Lakeland will host the 48th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This year\u2019s parade theme, \u201cA Legacy of Strength, A Future of Actions,\u201d was chosen to unite the community in honoring King and his message of equality, service, and unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cEach year, those themes reflect the city of Lakeland and how we\u2019re growing and the things that we need,\u201d said Cora Rankins, Lakeland MLK Commission committee president.<\/p>\n\n\n

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 \u201cWe were looking back on how we\u2019ve come through a lot, so that\u2019s our legacy of strength. And a future of actions because we\u2019re planning on continuing to do our best all the time,\u201d Rankins said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The parade will have more than 100 participants, including professional floats, marching bands, dance teams, decorated vehicles, car clubs, and other community groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will begin at the intersection of Providence Road and West 14th Street. From there, the parade will travel south on Providence Road, turn east onto 10th Street, continue south on MLK Jr. Avenue, and conclude at 2nd Street.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Watch the official live broadcast on the city of Lakeland\u2019s Facebook page, Spectrum Channel 643 or FiOS Channel 43. The broadcast will also be streamed on lakelandgov.net<\/a> and will be available on demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional Lakeland events<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wednesday, Jan 14<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Evening With the Artist: Alex Lanier<\/a> 
6 p.m. at The Ashley Gibson Barnett Museum of Art 
Free admission. RSVP on The AGB\u2019s website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friday, Jan 16<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBroadway in the Park\u201d Grand Marshal Gala honoring Sylvester Little and Latha Speed
7 p.m. at the Lake Crago Recreation Center<\/a>
Individual tickets $50 and tables $400; black-tie attire
Contact Cora Rankins for more information corarankins58@gmail.com<\/a> or 863-734-9277<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saturday, Jan. 17<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

MLK Car Show & Sound Competition<\/a>
3 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Joker Marchant Stadium<\/a> 
Free admission
$15 parking and $30 car registration<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cultural Connections<\/a>
10 a.m. to noon at Bonnet Springs Park<\/a> in the GiveWell Community Foundation Nature Center
Free admission
Celebrate MLK Day and kindness. Participate in a community mural, create an acts-of-kindness craft and share what kindness means to you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Monday, Jan 19<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prayer Breakfast featuring Pastor Rhonda Edwards<\/a> 
9 a.m. at the Dream Center of Lakeland<\/a>
Individual tickets $30
Hosted by the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Lakeland<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thursday, Jan. 22,<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oratorical Contest
7 p.m. at New Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church of Lakeland<\/a>
Open to Polk County Public School students from third through 12th grade
2026 Theme \u2014 Rev. Dr. Martin L. King Jr. & Corretta Scott King: How did their past resilience inspire present and future progress?
Contact Cora Rankins for more information corarankins58@gmail.com<\/a> or 863-734-9277<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The city of Lakeland will host the 48th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade on Saturday, Jan. 17, at 1 p.m. This year\u2019s parade theme, \u201cA Legacy of Strength, A Future… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61008,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"6","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDFcL2Rvd25sb2FkLTEyLndlYnA_Zml0PTI3NSUyQzE4MyZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ikxha2VsYW5kIHdpbGwgY2VsZWJyYXRlIHRoZSBjaXZpbCByaWdodHMgbGVhZGVyXHUyMDE5cyBlbmR1cmluZyBsZWdhY3kgd2l0aCBzcGVjaWFsIGV2ZW50cyBhbmQgaXRzIDQ4dGggYW5udWFsIHBhcmFkZSB0aGlzIFNhdHVyZGF5LiIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImZvbnQiOiIiLCJibG9nX2lkIjoxNjMwNDA2NjF9.JkORsNDhclnTbhHoA-QiLTLGpHImW_WYgTQxb-iyJKsMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":61008,"url":"http:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/download-12.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[13200],"class_list":["post-61007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-lakeland-will-celebrate-the-civil-rights-leaders-enduring-legacy-with-special-events-and-its-48th-annual-parade-this-saturday"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61007"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61007\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61013,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61007\/revisions\/61013"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}