The 2025 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade had to be postponed because of a record-setting snowfall in Pensacola in January. It was rescheduled for Juneteenth, but was forced to start late because of excessive heat.
Hopefully, the 2026 parade temperature and forecast will be somewhere between those two extremes.
The 2026 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade takes place on Jan. 19 which is the federal holiday celebrating the slain civil rights leader who was assassinated while on a hotel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39.
The Pensacola Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade begins at 11 a.m. at the intersection of Spring and Garden streets in downtown Pensacola and then will travel up and down Palafox. The theme this year is “With Unity, We Won’t Turn Back,” inspired by King’s famed “I’ve been to the Mountaintop” speech he delivered the day before his death.
Escambia County District 3 commissioner Lumon May is the 2026 parade grand marshal. The 2025 grand marshal, local media personality Linda “Sonshine” Moorer will also be featured in this year’s parade, since last year’s parade, even postponed, had fewer people than most MLK Day parades.
“They’re going to have Lumon in one car with 2026 grand marshal in it,” she said. “And I’ll be in another car with 2025 grand marshal on it. (The 2025) parade was kind of rough.”
The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade is truly a community parade, with children of all races and backgrounds riding in vehicles, marching in bands, or twirling batons and showing off dance moves.
“It’s not for certain people, it’s for all people,” said Rose Patton-James, parade coordinator. “It’s businesses, it’s the children, it’s the churches. It’s the whole community.”
Still, who knows what our fickle weather has in store for Jan. 19 and the holiday honoring King.
“We’re asking people to not let the weather stop them,” Patton-James said. “But bundle up and support the parade and its mission.”
