Black Lives Matter DC selected to be Grand Marshalls at MLK Day parade

Video highlights of the Black Lives Matter contingent

On the 15th of January, Black Lives Matter DC marched in the annual DC MLK day parade. Black Lives Matter DC also had the honor of being selected as grand marshalls in the parade this year.

Behind Black Lives Matter was the contingent demanding justice for Terrence Sterling, and after that came a Returning Citizens contingent representing those putting their lives back together after surviving the hell of imprisonment and literal slave labor prisoners are subjected to. Yet another contingent had several signs condemning Donald Trump's "shithole country" remarks, one of them saying Trump's US was the only shithole country in the world.

The organizers of Capitol Pride could learn a lot from the organizers of this parade about how to do a successful parade in DC without having to fill it up with corporate sponsored contingents. Clearly it can be done! Seeing a Returning Citizens contingent instead of private-prison funding Wells Fargo was especially satisfying. Unknown if all of this this is a deliberate choice by organizers to favor their own community over paying sponsors, or just a refusal by racists corporations like Wells Fargo to march in the MLK day parade anyway. Either way, the parade was a complete success, takes place every year, and was almost entirely free of the sort of corporate presence that has polluted so many Capitol Pride parades.