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Parade Marks 20 Years Marching

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By JOSE PATINO GIRONA

jpatino@tampatrib.com

Published: January 14, 2009

TAMPA - It is the little parade that could.

Tampa's Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade will celebrate its 20th anniversary with a celebration of the civil rights leader beginning at noon Monday.

The event will have added significance this year with the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama the following day.

"It is probably going to bring more emotion to the parade," said Frank Bell, parade chairman. "It adds to the emotion of it and it is a stepping stone to the following day."

Robert Scott Jr., parade co-chairman, anticipates seeing a number of Obama T-shirts and placards along with ones honoring King.

It is "the celebration of a wonderful, wonderful man," said Scott, the city's recycling manager. "They can see his achievement and his dream coming true with Obama's inauguration the very next day."

The parade will begin at 15th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and end at Osborne Avenue and 22nd Street.

There will be floats, marching bands, drum lines, step teams and public officials. The parade is sponsored by the city of Tampa, Hillsborough County and the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, said Bell, a retired city employee.

The parade dates to 1989 when county and city employees began a march from St. Paul AME Church in downtown Tampa to the old Hillsborough County Courthouse. King once spoke at the historic church, and it served as a central base for the local civil rights movement.

Clarence Fort, who was an organizer of the march and the parade, said he is moved that the parade is still going strong. Last year the parade drew 16,000 to 17,000 people.

"One of the things that we can be proud of is that Dr. Martin Luther King's dream is coming full circle," said Fort, who was in charge of the parade until 2006 and is a retired deputy with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office.

"What he dreamed what America should be is being realized," Fort said.

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade Tampa

WHEN: Noon Monday

WHERE: Parade begins at 15th Street and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. and ends at Osborne Avenue and 22nd Street.

WEB SITE: www.mlkjrparade

.com

Reporter Jose Patino Girona can be reached at (813) 259-7659.

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