Hundreds marched across the Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge in Springfield Monday morning to honor the late civil rights leader.

MLK march brings hundreds downtown

SBJ Staff

Posted online January 15, 2006 | 11:00 pm

Hundreds gathered in downtown Springfield this morning and marched across the Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge to honor King and his contributions to the civil rights movement in the 1960s.

Marchers met at Jordan Valley Ice Park at 9:30 a.m. and walked across the Benton Avenue bridge, renamed for King in late 2004. The march ended at Central High School, where a Martin Luther King Jr. Day ceremony was scheduled to follow.

Dr. DeLois Weeks, director of Cox Hospital School of Nursing and Health Services, was scheduled to speak. The Rev. Larry Maddox, president of the Springfield chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was scheduled to recognize three black officers of the Springfield Police Department.

The Black Alliance Club of Springfield and the men's choirs from the Washington Avenue Baptist Church and Deliverance Temple also were expected to participate in the ceremony.

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