01/20/2019
JANUARY 7, 2019
URGENT!!! PLEASE NOTE THAT: "America's National Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drum Major for Justice Parade, Battle of Bands & Drum Line Extravaganza has not been held, nor hosted in the City of St. Petersburg for 3 years, since 2016. Another local parade which is not our “America’s National MLK Parade” is being held in St.Petersburg that is only 2 years old & will be their 3rd Annual Parade on January 21, 2019. Any media advertisement that this local parade is 34 years old is legally a false claim.
READ BELOW TO UNDERSTAND!!!
Sevell
DRUM MAJOR
PLEASE REVIEW WHY WE ARE HONORING THIS HONOREES & FORWARD TO YOUR ORGANIZATION, FAMILY, FRIENDS & ESPECIALLY ALL OF THOSE WHO ATTENDED & GRADUATED FOR BETHUNE COOKMAN UNIVERSITY!!!
We seek to have you attend & join us in honoring Bethune Cookman University, Dr. Donovan Wells, Director of Bands & the BCU Marching Wildcats & 14 Karat Girls for the role BCU played in St. Petersburg becoming the first national traditional parade held in America to keep the Name & Dream of Dr. Matin Luther King, Jr. Alive & being the 1st & only HBCU marching band to march in our parade on Monday, January 20, 1986; some 34 years ago.
Thanks to Dr. Donovan Wells, who took the baton from Mr. Harold Bray, Director of Bands at BCU in 1986, the BCU Marching Wildcats & 14 Karat Girls marched for 32 years in "America's National Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drum Major for Justice Parade, Battle of Bands & Drum Line Extravaganza. It is time to honor Dr. Donovan Wells, while he can smell his roses & Bethune Cookman University Marching Wildcats, for the role they played in making "America's National MLK Drum Major for Justice Parade" the 1st, oldest & largest in America & the world. All of St. Petersburg & Florida must never forget that before Monday, January 20, 1986, there was no such animal or thing as a TRADITIONAL PARADE IN HONOR OF DR. KING with marching bands, floats & fanfare like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade & the Rose Bowl Pasadena Parade. In 1986, the lieutenants of Dr. King and just a few cities in America were commemorating Dr. King by conducting Mock Memorial Civil Rights Marches such as the one's Dr. King led in the Historic 1963 March on Washington, the historic 1965 Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March and the historic 1963 Alabama Marches in Birmingham when “Birmingham was Bombingham”.
Without the help of the (SCLC) Southern Christian Leadership Conference National Office & the former lieutenants of Dr. King, Sevell C. Brown, III carries out the VISION that GOD gave him of creating & institutionalizing a NATIONAL PARADE in honor of his servant who GOD anointed to begin and usher in the Contemporary Civil Rights Movement in America in the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott through Dr. King’s assassination on April 4, 1968.
The parade was designed to instill the Name & Dream of Dr. King in the hearts and minds of youth that were too young to know & march with Dr. King while he lived and the yet unborn to know his name by experiencing "America's National Dr. MLK Drum Major for Justice Parade, Battle of Bands & Drum Line Extravaganza hosted in St. Petersburg, Florida. The youth embraced the Drum Majors leading HBCU bands and their music marching in the "Art Form of the Knee & High Stepping Performing Style" & viewed them as uplifting, saluting & giving tribute to the world's & America's greatest Drum Major for Justice; Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Clearly the youth who never knew, never met, never marched with Dr. King, now matched the Drum Majors of every HBCU, middle and high school band with the Drum Major of Justice: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This strategy and orchestration by the Brown brothers in designing and implementing GOD’S VISION of a TRADITIONAL PARADE IN HONOR OF DR. KING now and forever etched in the minds of millions of children, youth and adults the importance of keeping Dr. King’s Legacy of Works and Dream Alive in Musical Celebrations for the last three decades.
Dr. Wells and the BCU Marching Wildcats & 14 Karat Girls has helped to build "America's National MLK Drum Major for Justice Parade, Battle of Bands & Drum Line Extravaganza" into the largest in the nation which has averaged an annual attendance of 100,000 from across America and has witnessed 2.4 million in attendance over the last 34 years and countless millions via ABC TV live telecast to 200 major affiliates and major markets and via ABC Broadband Internet that allowed military personnel around the world to see the parade in St. Petersburg on their computers.
Confronted on December 5, 1985 in the Gas Plant-Methodist Town original Black settlement area, after it was razed to the ground in the name of progress, to bring professional baseball & the Thunder Dome (now Tropicana Field) to St. Petersburg, Brown received a threat equivalent to the ones’ delivered to Dr. King from Selma’s Alabama Sheriff Jim Clark & Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth from Birmingham’s Chief of Police Bull Conner. Brown was in the first scheduled meeting with the police department to plan the staging of the National MLK Parade.
The St.Petersburg Chief of Police Sam Lynn sends Lt. Braun to meet Brown. Lt. Braun delivered Sevell Brown the message from Chief of Police Sam Lynn that under no circumstances is Brown to put Central Avenue on his parade application because as long as he is Chief of Police in St. Petersburg, there will never be a "Nigg...." parade come down Central Avenue! The Brown Brothers are told that Central Avenue is reserved for the sponsoring Suncoasters all White Festival of States, Santa Clause & Easter Bunny parades.
As a result of Sevell & Darryl L. Brown founding of “America’s National MLK Parade” and fighting the racism of the City of St. Petersburg, its mayors, council members & Chief of Police Sam Lynn & Chief Ernest "Curt" Curtsinger and filing a historic federal law suit in 1989-90 in the federal courts of Tampa against the City of St. Petersburg, hundreds of middle, high school & HBCU marching bands that came to St. Petersburg & participated in the parade over the years, took the God Given Vision of the concept of a TRADITION PARADE TO HONOR DR. KING back to their home towns and cities. Some 34 years later, the most accepted and popular format for honoring Dr. King in most all cities across America is by conducting Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Parades. African Americans across America have cloned & duplicated what was started in St. Petersburg, Florida 34 years ago due to a VISION GOD gave a "Son of St. Petersburg and Son of Historic Jordan Park Housing Projects " in November of 1985.
On Friday, January 18th at 7 p.m., please join us in honoring the university that embraced GOD’S VISION to honor his anointed servant, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. & stood with us on year one against the powers to be in St. Petersburg and Florida. We urge all of St. Petersburg to come out & show your appreciation for the role Dr. Donovan Wells, Director of Bands & the Bethune Cookman Marching Wildcats & 14 Karat Girls played in history as we seek to honor them with the "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Drum Major for Justice Lifetime Achievement & Legends Award in Civil Rights Musical Bandsmanship on Friday, January 18th at 7 p.m. All of St. Petersburg should be there!
Tickets are available at Looking Good Men's Fashion. Tickets are $45.00 each & $450.00 for a table of #10. You may reserve your tickets contacting the Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday & Legacy Association & the (NCLC) National Christian League of Councils at [email protected].
The official 2019 MLK Banquet Poster & Biography of our keynote speaker and history of the parade is attached. The history is attached because we as a people have a tendency to forget our history, leaving openings for others who never fought a battle for Dr. King & have been missing in action for 30 plus years to now surface to rewrite, hijack & plagiarize our history for their personal exaltation and financial gain.
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