Dozens Drawn to Bakersfield MLK Day March

Several dozen people walked down South Owens Street and East Brundage Lane in central Bakersfield to honor the life of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday.

Morris Francisco is a pastor at God’s Church of Deliverance on Haley Street in Bakersfield. He said he felt compelled to take part in the candlelight march.

“I thought I’d come out here and walk just to do something,” Francisco said. “They say you either stand for something or bow down to everything, so I wanted to take a stand.”

Shanelle Gridiron said she was proud to take part in Monday’s event.

“Everybody needs to know what happened in the past, and it’s a good thing to participate in a thing that was so powerful in the past,” Gridiron said. “It’s a part of history.”

The hour-long event capped off the federal holiday in the Bakersfield area.

– Anthony Pollreisz