A myriad of inauguration-watching parties and civic improvement events will take place across Southern California Monday, both to honor the Rev. Martin Luther King and to watch Barack Obama take his public oath of office.
At downtown Civic Center Grand Park, hip hop artists will weave quotes from King's "I Have A Dream Speech" into rap music, as they celebrate both the inauguration and the holiday honoring Dr. King's life and works.
The "Hail to the Chiefs" event will include concerts from several contemporary bands and food vendors from the popular City Hall farmers market. Attendees will be able to write in a giant, collective letter to the president, which will be posted in the park, just west of City Hall.
Many civic groups are combining the inauguration, the King holiday, and the a day off to labor on works of civic improvement.
About 1,000 volunteers will beautify the campus of Belmont High School. The 8:45 a.m. event is organized by City Year, a nonprofit that partners with public schools to help students stay on track to graduate.
It will include LAUSD board president Monica Garcia and 275 Americorps members.
In Gardena, Latino and black activists will join together at 8:30 a.m. to watch President Barack Obama's inauguration speech. Thjey said they will gather at the Good Jobs LA office to hey will listen particularly for discussion on immigration reform.
Other immigration activists will be watching the inauguration at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles office in the Pico-Union District, at 8 a.m.
Volunteer clean-up activities will also be underway all day in Long Beach, including harvesting fruit from residential trees to benefit food banks in the West Long Beach area.
Large murals will be painted starting at 9 a.m. at Bennett-Kew Elementary School in Inglewood.
In Exposition Park, the California African American Museum will screen the documentary "King: Man of Peace in a Time of War." Speed painter Zachary Brown will be on site to paint portraits of King.
At Venice Beach at noon, organizers said an "informal ocean ceremony" will include drums and round dancing on the sand.
The Museum of Tolerance, near Beverly Hills, will screen "The Memphis 13," which recounts the October day in 1961 that 13 black first graders broke the color lines and entered four all-white elementary schools.
Following the screening, a video-conference conversation will be held with director/producer Daniel Kiel, a law professor at the University of Memphis, and several students featured in the film.
Government offices, courts, schools, libraries, banks and post offices will be closed.
Trash will be collected as usual in the city of Los Angeles.
Metrolink trains will run on a normal schedule. Train schedules and directions to Metrolink stations are available online at www.metrolinktrains.com or by calling (800) 371-LINK. Metrolink will be offering a two-for-one special on most train tickets for the day.
All Metro buses and rail lines will also run on a normal schedule. Specific schedules for bus lines can be found on the MTA's Web site at www.metro.net.
Foothill Transit lines will run as usual. Further details about Foothill Transit schedules are available online at www.foothilltransit.org or by calling (800) 743-3463.
Segregation is still a de-facto reality in Los Angeles, just look at our local schools. Your persecution complex is unfounded, Susan. We should all be working to help raise up "those who have been left out of the sunlight of opportunity" - and yes - they do span all races. However, the he vast majority of those living in poverty in Los Angeles are minorities; whites of any means just tend to choose not to live in the same communities, and choose not to send their kids to "those schools". We, in Northeast Los Angeles specifically, should be sensitive to this fact - Where else in the nation can you find neighborhoods with million-dollar homes in such close proximity to areas where poverty runs rampant. It's in our face daily, and the fact that you are willfully blind to the disparity and the racial segregation simply confirms your stubborn selfishness. That you perceive whites in Los Angeles as oppressed is laughable.
And, yes, there are poor white people that are oppressed by minorities that are now the majority. But what you are doing by the way you speak is segregation. People need to stop looking at race and color. Oppression in today's world comes in all races and colors. You need to look at economics, rich and poor. That was Dr. King's dream. But some only want that for themselves and not for all races. Rich tend to live among rich and it has nothing to do with race. Stop the race baiting. Look at economics. I guess you have not attended public schools where white kids are belittled for the sins of dead people. They are victims. Stop looking at race. Look at economics. Dr. King had it right. Let freedom ring for all, not some.
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I'm not the one giving the ignagrual adress... Let's not forget that on MLK Day 2013, the rates of poverty among black and brown citizens in this country is at historic 50 yr highs. Let us not forget the 250 documented killings of women and children from B.O.'s Drone Attacks in an ever expanding War On Terror, and I know the few who are lucky to be employed in B.O.'s 3rd World Economy are not too happy about their payroll contributions going up, in order to subsidize piggish Middle Class Life Styles. btw, the 'J' on my old keyboard sticks... I spell govment like that intentionally, I always forget that " i before e except after c" bit.. then again I didn't go to Harvard. In any case B.O.s speech was written at an 8th grade level. Compared to FDR, which was given, (or is it givin), at an 11th grade level. Lincoln, who had no real formal schooling, speech was written at an 11th grade level. At any rate, I don't believe type-o's and misspellings figure in the calculation. I believe the personal freedoms lost under W. Bush, vis a vis The Patriot Act, are still important. I still believe that The Poor are important in this country, that people who want to work should be afforded the chance to. Tens of thousands of innocent Mexican citizens have been slaughtered by Assault Weapons illegally provided to Narco Drug Cartels,by the B.O. administration. That's not easy for me to forget either. The Debt B.O. continues to pile on is something our kids, and grandkids won't forget!
I agree with you Rev. many of the rich do take advantage of the poor they hire, but it is not only rich whites that do it, it is rich of all races. And, not to put all rich in one basket either, there are good and bad in every race and in rich and poor. Just remember not to put everyone in the same basket. Poor people of all colors and races need opportunities. People need to stop looking at only one certain race at a time and include everyone. I don't see Obama giving opportunities to the poor. And, those just above the poverty line that are the working poor are the ones that really deserve some help rather than those that enjoy a free welfare check, free rent, free cell phones, free utilities, free schools, free medi-cal, free WIC, free parking tickets, ect., ect., ect. Yes, low income people can even get their parking tickets dismissed. There is also help for poor people that do not pass the smog check. There is low cost auto insurance for the poor too. http://www.aipso.com/lc I support some programs that I know help the working poor. But too many "freebies" keeps poor people down. And, most of the poor are minorities. Government designs these programs to keep poor people down.