Despite icy streets and concerns about counterprotests, a smaller but no less lively crowd marched down East Colfax Avenue on Monday for Denver’s annual Marade.
Shauntaye Sharp, 26, said she has been coming since she was a little girl when her uncle would bring the whole family. This year, she attended with her mother, brother, sister-in-law, cousin and a family friend.
“It’s become a tradition. It’s something we do no matter the weather,” Sharp said. “It’s about knowing where we came from and knowing how far we’ve come. We still have opportunities.”
Thousands gathered in City Park to listen to speeches by politicians and organizers of the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Marade.
Organizers of the Marade, which is a mash-up of the words “parade” and “march,” worried that members of Black Lives Matter 5280 and opponents of President-elect Donald Trump might attempt to disrupt the event, which has been held for 30 years in Denver. But unlike last year, interruptions did not occur.
Instead, a crowd at least four blocks in length made its way down Colfax Avenue, from City Park to Civic Center, chanting and holding up signs expressing love for King and distaste for Trump.
“I’m still trying to process the election,” said Danielle Ryan, a Denver resident who was walking in her sixth Marade. “I like to come out to events like this because they give me energy.”
The crowd was noticeably smaller this year than in the past two years, when attendance was clocked at 30,000 people. Vern Howard, chairman of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Colorado Holiday Commission, blamed the smaller crowd on the weather and the disruption of the 2016 Marade by activists who commandeered the stage and protested the city’s handling of its investigation into the death of Michael Marshall at the Downtown Detention Center.
“I believe what happened last year coupled with the weather this year kept a lot of people away,” he said.
The Marade started Monday with a series of speeches from members of Colorado’s congressional delegation, along with Gov. John Hickenlooper, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb and his wife, former state Rep. Wilma Webb.
“Despite the cold, despite the snow, we’ve never needed (this march) more,” said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Denver.
U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet made special note of President Barack Obama’s eight years in office.
“It has not been easy to be the first African-American president,” Bennet said. “I’m grateful for the example (the first family) set for me and for my children.”
U.S. Rep Mike Coffman, R-Aurora, ran into trouble with the audience when he stepped up to the microphone. As he began speaking, several people in the crowd began to heckle him with chants of “No repeal!” a reference to the congressman’s stated desire to dismantle the Affordable Care Act spearheaded by Obama.
Coffman didn’t acknowledge the interruptions during his short speech, which lasted little more than a minute or two. At one point, the heckling almost drowned out the congressman’s words.
On Saturday, Coffman was in the crosshairs of dozens of his constituents, who were angry when Coffman promised to hold one-on-one meetings with them but failed to take time for everyone who showed up and then left. Many wanted to talk about his opposition to Obamacare, according to social media posts.
On Friday, Coffman joined three other Republican U.S. representatives from Colorado in Denver Post opinion page piece about why they would vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
Minutes earlier, U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, a fellow Republican who also opposes Obamacare, addressed the crowd and was met with polite applause.
Coffman joined his fellow elected leaders at the front of the Marade as it left City Park and marched with the crowd part of the way down Colfax Avenue toward Civic Center.
A winter storm hit the city late Sunday night, but crews worked through the early morning hours to clear the streets.
While the crowd was smaller, it did not lack the energy that is a hallmark of the annual commemoration.
A drum line led the Marade as politicians and everyday Denver residents followed. A SUV following the drum line blared excerpts from famous speeches King made during his time as the nation’s civil rights leader.
People carried homemade signs and led chants about social justice issues.
At Civic Center, speeches were at a minimum. Instead, the crowd was entertained with singing and dancing. Howard gave flowers to those who helped organize the Marade.
Shabasa Sayers, 43, said he remembers his father, Alfred Sayers, and cousins gathering in the family living room in 1980 to talk about organizing a Martin Luther King Jr. event.
“It’s special to me to come down to see what went from 15 people to thousands,” Sayers said.
However, the proliferation of corporate sponsors and politicians bothered him.
“We were marching with a purpose, and now we’re marching to be seen with our banners,” he said.
The corporate sponsors, however, are how the commission pays for scholarships and other projects statewide, Howard said. He hopes sponsors return for 2018 because the commission plans a big to-do to mark the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tenn.
“I have visions of grandeur,” he said.
