Marchers made their way up Main Street on St. Thomas on Martin Luther King Jr. Day as the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity hosted a peace march in honor of the late civil rights leader.
School groups, Girl Scouts, marching bands, majorettes, fraternities, sororities and labor leaders joined the line of march from Rothschild Francis Market Square to Emancipation Garden.
Merchants and tourists joined V.I. residents and parents of student marchers, taking in the spectacle. Grand Marshal Moleto Smith captured the spirit of the day, reflecting on the holiday and the inauguration of a new U.S. president.
“I know there’s a lot of things happening today — some in Washington, D.C., but this is what’s happening here,” Smith said. “Since 1986, when Martin Luther King Day was first observed as a federal holiday, millions of people throughout the world and the country commemorate this with marches and rallies.”
At the foot of Educator’s Park — across the road from the post office, Elvis Richardson and his family viewed the event. “This was a wonderful activity. We need to have activities like this,” he said.
Lt. Gov. Tregenza Roach said he came to “honor our icons” but also in support of an effort to rally Virgin Islanders around a shared ideal.
“Community building, spiritual grounding, and just encouraging our people to hold on in difficult moments,” Roach said.
Alpha Phi Alpha’s local chapter was chartered on St. Thomas in 1962, making it the oldest Greek-letter organization in the Virgin Islands. They welcomed Senate President Milton Potter, who delivered the keynote address at the rally that followed the peace march up Main Street Monday.
Martin Luther King Jr. was a Baptist minister and civil rights advocate who led peace marches across the American South from 1955 in support of minority voters, unionized workers, and other worthy causes until his assassination in April 1968. Former President Ronald Reagan signed a measure proclaiming King’s birthday as a national holiday on Nov. 2, 1983.
