It has been 40 years since Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated outside of his Memphis, TN hotel room. As a baptist minister on the forefront of the civil rights movement, Dr. King lead many famous boycotts, marches, and protests through his ideas of "civil disobedience" in order to bring light to the plight of African Americans in the United States. Since his death many advances have come in regards to equality in America, yet many feel that the work of Dr. King and other civil rights workers must not be forgotten. So every year on the anniversary of Dr. Kings birth, Cincinnati citizens gather to march in remembrance of the progress made and to bring light to current issues.
The march was organized and led by the Cincinnati chapter of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Coalition. Participant's gathered at the city's National Underground Freedom Center.
Metro provided one of their new "Ethanol powered," environmental friendly buses for those who could not make the walk in the bitter cold. Cincinnati police provided escort as the march progressed towards Fountain Square.
At Fountain Square, prayers and speeches were given while the crowd was encourage to sing along to "We Shall Overcome" as the march proceeded to the music hall in Over The Rhine.
Racial tensions in Cincinnati have been somewhat strained since 2001 after the police shooting death of Timothy Thomas, an African American teenager attempting to flee from the police.
However, on this day, Cincinnati police escorted the crowd and marched along with them .
