Local leaders are preparing to host the 17th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative Peace March & Ceremony and Civil Rights Memorial Plaque unveiling near Victorville City Hall.
Presented by the High Desert Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Inc., the march will begin at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 20, at the corner of Seneca Road and Civic Drive.
Local leaders are preparing to host the 17th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Peace March & Ceremony and Civil Rights Memorial Plaque unveiling on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, near Victorville City Hall.
The march will end at the Civil Rights Memorial near city hall on Civic Drive, where a ceremony will include local leaders sharing words of inspiration.
City officials said that the Civil Rights Memorial was created to “honor and remember” the sacrifices and triumphs of America’s Civil Rights Leaders.
Student Aimee Calderon
During the ceremony, city leaders will recognize sixth-grader Aimee Calderon, the winner of its annual Civil Rights Memorial Essay Contest.
Aimee, who attends Brentwood Elementary School, will read her winning essay during the ceremony. Additionally, the city will dedicate a bronze plaque honoring the subject of Aimee’s winning essay, Claudette Colvin.
Local leaders are preparing to host the 17th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemorative Peace March & Ceremony and Civil Rights Memorial Plaque unveiling on Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, near Victorville City Hall.
Claudette Colvin
Nine months before Rosa Parks’s famous act of civil disobedience, 15-year-old Claudette Colvin was arrested on March 2, 1955, for refusing to give up her seat on a segregated Montgomery, Alabama bus, according to History.com.
Colvin was traveling home from school when the bus driver ordered her, along with three fellow Black students, to give up their row of seats to a white passenger. While Colvin’s friends obliged, the teenager refused to move.
Colvin cited that she paid her fare and that staying seated was her constitutional right. She was then forcibly removed from the bus by two police officers, handcuffed and arrested, and booked in a local adult jail.
The teenager was charged with violating segregation law, disorderly conduct and assaulting a police officer. The former two charges were dropped, but the latter stayed on her record until it was expunged decades late in 2021.
Colvin, 85, recently moved from her longtime home in New York City to Alabama because of health issues, according to NBC.
Nine months before Rosa Parks, Claudette Colvin was arrested when she refused to give up her bus seat in Montgomery, Alabama.
Civil Rights Memorial
A portion of Aimee’s winning essay will appear on the bronze plaque displayed at the city’s Civil Rights Memorial.
This is the 10th year the city of Victorville has hosted its Civil Rights Memorial Essay Contest to celebrate those who have contributed to advancing the civil rights of all people.
Fifth- and sixth-grade students throughout the city of Victorville are invited to compete in the annual contest.
Plaques displayed at the memorial site recognize civil rights activists Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Asa Philip Randolph, Frederick Douglass, Cesar Chavez, Harriet Tubman, Lucy Burns, Jackie Robinson, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Frances EW Harper, and Katherine Johnson.
Claudette Colvin,sitting with attorney Fred Gray, speaks after filing papers to have her name cleared at family court in Montgomery, Ala., on Tuesday October 26, 2021. Colvin was convicted and given probation for not giving up her seat on a Montgomery bus in 1955
This year’s plaque, honoring Claudette Colvin, is sponsored by Heritage Victor Valley Medical Group.
For additional information or to become a sponsor of future Civil Rights Memorial plaques, call (760) 955-3306 or visit VictorvilleCA.gov/civilrightsmemorial.
Daily Press reporter Rene Ray De La Cruz may be reached at RDeLaCruz@VVVDailyPress.com. Follow him on X @DP_ReneDeLaCruz.
This article originally appeared on Victorville Daily Press: Martin Luther King Jr. Day march, plaque unveiling in Victorville