‘Love and action’: Hundreds in Everett march to honor MLK
Published 2:08 pm Monday, January 19, 2026
EVERETT — Hundreds of people took to the streets of Everett on Monday to honor the life of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. as part of an annual celebration.
Marchers set off from Everett Memorial Stadium as fog began to clear on a chilly morning. Those in attendance sang “We Shall Overcome” and “Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around,” songs popularized during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s.
“We march to remember Dr. King by continuing his work and justice and dignity and love and action,” said Olympia Edwards, the CEO of the Project Girl Mentoring Program, a Lynnwood-based nonprofit. “This right here is love and action. Walking together is love and action.”
The march ended at the Carl Gipson Center, a building that bears the name of the pioneering former Everett City Council member who was the first Black man elected to the position. Gipson served six terms in office. At the center, people filled an auditorium to listen to speakers and performances from a celebratory choir.
The event, part of a two-day commemoration Martin Luther King Jr. Day, was organized by the Snohomish County Black Heritage Committee. The organization also runs the annual Nubian Jam festival, a celebration of Black culture that has taken place in Snohomish County for over three decades.
Martin Luther King Jr. Day is a federal holiday commemorating the civil rights leader’s birthday. King led a push for civil rights in America for over a decade, a movement that catalyzed landmark legislation in the 1960s, which outlawed segregation, employment discrimination, housing discrimination and discrimination in voting.
“We can create the world we want to see,” said DeLon Lewis, a staff member at Everett Community College’s Diversity and Equity Center. “That’s what Dr. King was all about, getting out and doing the work, taking action.”
Fredrick Bletson Jr., a member of the Black Heritage Committee’s executive board, said the goal of the march was not just to remember the efforts of those who fought for civil rights in the past, but to also teach a new generation how to remain united and to “pass the baton” to those who can continue the fight for equality.
“Dr. King was a leader, one of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement. He was not the Civil Rights Movement. The people were the Civil Rights Movement,” Bletson Jr. said. “If there’s going to be change, it’s going to take the people rallying together. Where there’s unity, there’s strength.”
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
