Bay Area Marks Martin Luther King Jr. Day With Marches, Art, Fairs

Marches, rallies and festivals are planned in San Francisco and  elsewhere in the Bay Area on Monday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

The "Freedom Train," sponsored by the Martin Luther King Jr.  Association of Santa Clara Valley, departed from San Jose at 10 a.m. and arrived at the San Francisco Caltrain station an hour later. Riders then walked roughly 1.5 miles from the station to the  Yerba Buena Center for the Arts for an annual festival hosted by the Northern  California Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Foundation.

On their way, the marchers crossed the Lefty O'Doul Bridge near  AT&T Park to commemorate the crossing of the Edmund Pettus Bridge during a  march King led with other civil rights advocates in 1965 from Selma to  Montgomery, Ala.

Monday's march was set to continue down Third Street before ending  at Yerba Buena Gardens for a noon interfaith ceremony led by the San  Francisco Interfaith Council.    The free festival at Yerba Buena will continue until 5 p.m.

The galleries at the Yerba Buena  Center for the Arts, the Museum of the African Diaspora and the Contemporary  Jewish Museum all offered free admission on Monday. And to accommodate the anticipated crowds, there will be supplemental  bus service between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. on the San Francisco Municipal Railway  30-Stockton route.

On the T-Third Muni Metro line, there was special service between  Visitacion Valley and the San Francisco Caltrain station.

In other parts of the Bay Area, residents also remembered  King with rallies, parades and marches.

The "Keeping the Dream Alive through Education and Nonviolence"  rally in Oakland included a speech by Oakland  fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed and performances by youngsters from the  Oakland-based program Youth Uprising. And a
health fair sponsored by Attitudinal Healing Connection was held at McClymonds High School at 2607 Myrtle St. in  Oakland.

In El Cerrito, a parade began in the parking lot of the DMV this  morning and continued to El Cerrito High School for a rally.

An annual noontime MLK celebration by the Mount Diablo Peace and  Justice Center was held at St. Paul's Episcopal Church at 1924 Trinity  Ave. in Walnut Creek. The Rev. Kamal Hassan from the Sojourner Truth  Presbyterian Church in Richmond will present his thoughts on an "inconvenient  hero" in a keynote speech. There will also be a gospel choir performing.

Other events were held throughout the day in Richmond, San  Leandro, Santa Rosa and elsewhere.