Tyrone Lloyd's 14-year-old daughter, Akela, has been a Duluth resident all her life. But Monday was the first time she took part in a Martin Luther King Jr. march. The moment was too big for the two to pass up.
"I thought it was time my daughter got involved in these marches," Tyrone Lloyd said. "Tomorrow signifies that Dr. King's dream is finally coming to fruition."
Lloyd was referring, of course, to the inauguration of Barack Obama, who will be the country's first black president. To most who took part in the march, Obama's achievements made Martin Luther King Day all the more significant.
"For black people in America, and for so many others, this is a great hurdle we've cleared," Shalah Brown said. " 'Yes we can' is just the beginning."
To Brown, Obama's inauguration gives her hope that racism will someday end.
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"I think it's possible," she said. "As Barack Obama has shown us, anything is possible."
Obama's election, combined with warmer-than-usual weather, brought out one of the largest crowds Duluth Police Chief Gordon Ramsay said he has seen in the 13 years he's been at the event. He estimated that about
700 to 800 people walked from the Washington Center to the Duluth Entertainment Convention Center auditorium, taking up half of a street and at times stretching for two city blocks.
Once at the auditorium, which seats more than 2,300 people, the crowd swelled to fill out the entire bottom section and a third of the top section.
"It's so good to see a full auditorium here," Duluth Mayor Don Ness told the crowd.
Ness said it was a Martin Luther King Day like no other -- "on the eve of one of the most important and remarkable events in the history of the world."
"I've heard talking heads say: 'Isn't it interesting' or 'Isn't it appropriate' that MLK Day is the day before the inauguration of our first black president," he said. "No, it's much more than that. This is not just passing trivia. It's as if somebody is trying to get our attention -- to say: 'Pay attention -- this is important.' It's as if the divine hand of God recognized the power and the importance of this moment, recognized that we cannot separate these two ideas: The fact that the most powerful person in the world will be African American cannot be separated from the dream that Martin Luther King breathed life into. "
The event's keynote speaker, Dr. Curtis Austin, director for the center of black studies at the University of Southern Mississippi, said King's legacy was to get others to stand up for righteousness.
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"Even in death, he's been able to continue along that path," he said.
And while Austin said the achievements of eliminating segregation were remarkable, "they're not enough."
"It's not enough. We must do more," he said. "We must stand up and demand more not only of our government and our leaders, but of ourselves."
