Tiesha Lawrence was still hurting from the June 2023 homicide death of her 19-year-old son Nijae Boddie, but instead of spending the day in the house stewing about it on Jan. 15, she decided to be proactive and join the 2024 MLK Holiday Annual Rally, Peace Walk and Parade that took place in Ward 8 despite the sub-freezing temperatures and snow.
“I want to keep my son’s name going on,” said Lawrence, 44, at the rally that preceded the peace walk at Shepherd Parkway. “I want to know who killed my son. I am here to make sure that what happened to my son doesn’t happen to anyone else. I want to get justice.”
Lawrence participated in both processions, with dozens in the peace walk and hundreds in the parade.
The parade capped off a week of events preceding it that included a prayer breakfast, an essay contest, and religious services.
The first parade took place in 1979 spearheaded by Washington Informer Publisher Calvin Rolark, then-D.C. Council member Wilhelmina Rolark (D-Ward 8) and activist and local media personality Ralph Waldo “Petey” Greene Jr.
Washington Informer Publisher Denise Rolark Barnes and community activist Stuart Anderson co-lead the present King Holiday committee.
The Peace Rally and Walk
Shepherd Parkway is located on the northeast corner intersected by Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X avenues in Southeast. In the middle of the eastern end of the park was a platform for the speakers at the Peace Rally.
In order to deliver remarks to the 35 people wearing layers of clothing to protect themselves from the shivering cold and light snow, speakers would climb the three steps on the platform and walk to the front. They were handed the microphone by Ed Hardy, a member of the King Day committee who generally coordinates the Peace Rally and Peace Walk.
Hardy said the theme was to deal with the deadly violence in the District.
“We have to end the gun violence in the streets now,” said Hardy.
Taloria Gant was one of the speakers. She lost her son, 23-year-old Brandon Gant, to gun violence in October 2023. Gant told the gathering that she thinks of her son every day and misses him.
“It just hurts to know that my son is not coming back,” Gant, 46 said, fighting back tears.
The Rev. Kendrick Curry, the co-pastor of The Pennsylvania Avenue Baptist Church in Ward 7 in Southeast, said one of the best ways to combat violence in neighborhoods is to coalesce around common goals.
“We need to organize the people,” said Curry. “We need to organize the money. We need to change the well-being of our community.”
Curry’s wife, the Rev. Karen Curry, read two poems, “Violins or Violence” and “Colin Couldn’t Stand.”
The Rev. Terrance M. McKinney of Campbell AME Church in Ward 8 talked about what King said in his famous “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 and whether the objectives have been achieved presently.
The gathering had a quick moment of silence for the victims of violence in the city. Lawrence and Gant were joined by other mothers of victims on the platform displaying the photos of gunned-down loved ones.
The Rev. George C. Gilbert of the Holy Trinity United Baptist Church assembled the gathering at the northeast section of the park to march three blocks to the front of the R.I.S.E. Demonstration Center on the campus of St. Elizabeths East.
The Parade
Carla Blake is a member of the District’s Omicron Phi Zeta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority Inc. Like Lawrence, she participated in both the peace walk and parade. Blake said the two events represent that for which the sorority and King stood.
“One of our sorority’s tenants is service,” said Blake. “We give back to the community. We are action-oriented. We want to stop crime, make housing available for everyone and promote prematurity awareness.”
Other members of the Divine Nine participated in the parade, including the Omicron Lambda Alpha, Mu Lambda and Omicron Eta Lambda chapters of Alpha Phi Alpha — King’s fraternity — as well as members of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Omega Psi Phi and Iota Phi Theta. Alpha Kappa Alpha was also celebrating its Founders Day the same day, Jan. 15.
Parade officials said 148 organizations participated in the procession, including 19 bands.
Pege Gilgannon, a parade coordinator, said bands came from the District, Baltimore, Virginia, and New Jersey.
One of the bands, the Booker T. Washington High School Band of Norfolk, Virginia, traveled to the District to perform in the parade despite the inclement weather.
“We received an invite to perform here,” said Vincent Johnson, the band director for Washington High School. “We decided to make the trip. It is really worth it.”
Johnson, 56, said in some instances performing in the parade is the first time some of his students have been to the nation’s capital “or even out of Norfolk.”
An estimated 150 Freemasons participated in the parade, also. The Most Worshipful Grand Master of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia Glenn N. Ruffin said participating in the parade was a natural progression of his organization’s activities.
“We have the same priorities that Martin Luther King had such as jobs, equality and great opportunity for everyone,” Ruffin, 57, said.
