Martin Luther King Jr. March, Celebration In Leesburg

LEESBURG, VA — The 28th annual Martin Luther King Jr. march and celebration will be held on Monday, Jan. 20 in downtown Leesburg, with a theme of "Community: A Vision for Our Future" for this year's events. Residents and community organizations will gather at 10 a.m. on the Loudoun County Courthouse lawn in Leesburg for the march.

Participants will march from the Old Loudoun Courthouse to the Douglass Community Center, formerly Douglass High School, located at 405 East Market Street. Local school bands, families, and community groups will be among the participants in the march. Event organizers suggest that religious and civic organizations and members of the community walk together during the march and display their banners.

Douglass High School was the last segregated high school in Loudoun County until it was closed in 1968 as a result of desegregation. The founding sponsors of the event are the Loudoun NAACP, Douglass Alumni Association, Bluemont Concert Series and the Baha'i Community of Loudoun.

Prior to the march, a community forum will be held at Douglass Community Center from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. featuring a dialogue between youth and elders.

Following the march, refreshments will be served at the Douglass Community Center. Musical performances, presentations and inspirational offerings will be made by members of the community, highlighted by keynote speaker Dr. Jason Nichols, an award winning lecturer in the African American Studies Department at the University of Maryland College Park. Nichols was the long time editor-in-chief of "Words Beats & Life: The Global Journey of Hip Hop Culture," the first peer-reviewed journal of Hip-hop studies.

East Market Street from King Street to Church Street in Leesburg will be closed at 9:30 a.m. in preparation for the march. Once the march begins, rolling street closures will take place in the eastbound lanes of East Market Street, from Church Street to the Douglass Community Center.

Participants in the Martin Luther King, Jr. celebration can participate in a canned food drive to benefit Loudoun Hunger Relief. This local charity has a special need for nonperishable meat products. The drop off area for the food drive will be at Douglass Community Center from 8 a.m. to 1:30 p.m on Jan. 20.