For the second year in a row, Denver’s MLK Jr. Marade impacted by harsh weather

DENVER — For the second year in a row, Denver’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Marade will be impacted by harsh weather. The high temperature Monday morning is not expected to break double digits.

“We are encouraging folks not to come out if they’re seniors, children or have underlying health conditions,” said Vern L. Howard, chairman of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. holiday commission. 

“We cannot dictate who will and will not show up, however, we’ve given those instructions and will allow people to make their own decisions from there,” Howard said. 

The commission pushed the start time from 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. and will have three warming centers along the Marade’s route from City Park to Civic Center. Warming centers are located at the Carla Madison Recreation Center, Pete’s Kitchen and Church in the City. 

Denver organizers have held the Marade — whose name is a combination of march and parade — since 1986. Organizers canceled the event in 1994 due to cold weather, but Howard said several hundred people still attended. Since then, the commission has decided to never cancel the event but instead to encourage caution.

Monday marks the third time in history that Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Inauguration Day fall on the same day. The incoming Trump administration elected to move the Inauguration indoors, citing cold temperatures from the arctic blast. The overlap won’t happen again until 2053, according to NPR.

Howard said choosing to march in King’s name through the cold is emblematic of King’s fights for civil rights. 

“When he went through all the things he did and all we have to do is march in the cold to fight for the same causes, a little bit of cold is not going to deter what it is we need to do and why we need to do it,” Howard said. “We’re marching for the same challenges he did.”

The 2025 Marade theme is “make real the promises of democracy,” a famous quote from King’s “I Have a Dream,” speech. Howard said he believes Colorado has “some of the best voting rights in the country,” but the theme is in solidarity with states that have made voting more difficult, as well as Congress’s refusal to pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act. The 2023 proposed law would have strengthened legal protections against discriminatory voting laws.

“They’re doing everything they can to make sure Black people can’t cast their vote, and there is something fundamentally wrong with that picture,” Howard said. 

Terri Gentry, the engagement manager for Black communities at History Colorado, said the Marade also honors King’s legacy in Denver. He preached several sermons at Macedonia Baptist Church of Denver and Montview Boulevard Church, both in 1964.

“The assumption now is that only bad things happened to Black people in the South, but every state had challenges,” Gentry said. 

Denver participated in mandatory busing after a 1973 United States Supreme Court decision required school districts across the country to ensure schools reflected the racial diversity of their districts. The practice in Denver was met with violent resistance.

The Ku Klux Klan also had a large presence in Colorado.

Gentry said King’s sermons to Black churches in Denver encouraged fighting for civil rights in the city and state.

“He was preaching and giving sermons to help everyone stand up and recognize the fight for our human rights, our civil rights and our children’s rights,” she said. “He had such a significant impact on the members of those churches.”

While Howard praised Colorado’s voting rights, he said the Marade still recognizes the fight for equalities in the health care, justice and education systems.

“You would think after decades, that those things would have changed, that we would have more equality and we still don’t have it,” Howard said. “We still have the disparities in the courts and the injustices where a person of color will be sentenced to a longer jail sentence than a white person. You cannot tell me that there isn’t something fundamentally wrong with that picture.”

Marade organizers are asking immunocompromised people to reconsider their attendance at the event and instead encouraging those who would normally attend to find indoor, year-round volunteer opportunities to honor King.

“This isn’t just to honor him one day a year,” Howard said. “You can get out and make a difference every day.”