About

It all started with a dream…

The Seattle MLK Jr. Organizing Coalition is an all-volunteer organization composed of grassroots, labor, business, people of color, and progressive community organizations and volunteers from throughout the Puget Sound region. Annually, these groups come together and organize our community's largest tribute to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - the only geographic jurisdiction named in Dr. King's honor.

Membership in the coalition is open. Individuals become voting members at their second meeting of the year (see our Principles of Unity). Our democratically elected leadership can be found here. The Coalition has many longtime members who have been planning and participating in the march for over 30 years. A few longtime members are Lacy Steele, Eddie Rye Jr., Larry Gossett, and Bob Barnes. We are proud to have a broad based coalition of members, including many labor unions, that support the annual march and rally.

ACTIVISM DIES IN COMPLACENCY. FIGHT FOR OUR VISION OF EQUALITY, SAFETY, AND HAPPINESS DAILY!

There have been over 400 years of oppression of Black, Indigenous, and People of Color; which includes human trafficking, enslavement, genocide, torture, disenfranchisement, segregation, imprisonment, dispossession of land, and so much more, and yet none of this has ever broken the spirit of our Peoples to achieve justice and equity.

2024 marks forty-one years that the residents of Seattle and King County have and continue to honor the legacy and the mission of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a rally, march, internship, workshops, youth-led programming, and job fair. The first forty years were but the beginning. Seattle's annual MLK celebration aims to inspire this and future generations to live up to Dr. King's dream of achieving the Beloved Community.