Those of you who read my story on Congresswoman Laura Richardson and the Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, in The District Weekly on Wednesday, might have sensed something was awry.

Two former candidates for higher office–Al Austin, contender in April for the Long Beach Sixth District City Council seat, and former Green Party Congressional candidate Daniel Brezenoff (who actually ran against Richardson for the 37th Congressional District seat this summer)–thought they knew what it was, and contacted The District online.

“You have made a major error here,” Brezenoff wrote. “The ministers lead [sic] the parade in ’07, ’06, and every year before that.”

Said Austin: “Several ministers did in fact lead the parade, which is tradition.”
Fact is, they’re both partially right. I was wrong in writing that the ministers didn’t march in this year’s MLK parade, and in the several previous years.

According to Dr. Rev. Garon Harden, president of the Long Beach Ministers Alliance, members of the Ministers Alliance–the heads of many local congregations–have marched in the Martin Luther King Jr. parade every year since the parade began.

But according to Harden, the Alliance doesn’t typically head up the parade; its members march in third place, behind flagbearers and a marching band. That’s where you would have seen them this past January.

As for representatives of the various congregations which march elsewhere in the parade, their attendance varies.

According to an evangelist at Christ Second Baptist Church, at 1471 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, the last time their Church Administrator Rev. Lovell Alford marched in the parade was 2005.

And an employee at the Love Unlimited Community Church at 1760 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue told me that their longtime pastor, Bishop Flueker, hadn’t marched in the parade since at least 2005 due to an illness. (Flueker passed recently, and the congregation is now led by G. E. Lassiter.)

Thanks to Al Austin and Daniel Brezenoff for correcting us.

Tags: 37th Congressional District, Al Austin, California, Christ Second Baptist Church, Congresswoman Laura Richardson, Daniel Brezenoff, Dr. Rev. Garon Harden, G. E. Lassiter, Green Party, Long Beach, Long Beach City Council, Long Beach Ministers Alliance, Long Beach Sixth Council District, Love Unlimited Community Church, Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration, Rev. Lovell Alford, Southern California, The District Weekly, Theo Douglas