Monday’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade is dedicated to the late William S. Rushing, who had devoted himself to organizing the local march since its inception more than two decades ago. 

The 27th Annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade kicks off at Ala Moana Beach and culminates in an all-day unity rally at Kapiolani Park.

"This parade was his baby," said Rushing’s wife, Patricia Anthony, president of the Hawaii Martin Luther King Jr. Coalition, which organizes the event. Rushing died Dec. 23.

The "People’s Parade" features at least 60 organizations, including church groups, veterans and local unions — an estimated 2,000 marchers.

"This holiday represents all of the work that everyone put into the civil rights movement," said Marsha Joyner, a spokeswoman for the coalition. "Martin Luther King Jr. is a symbol for all of their struggles."

Hawaii was among the last three states to observe the holiday after President Ronald Reagan signed Martin Luther King Jr. Day into law in 1983.

Alice Talbott, who helped to spearhead the local movement for an official holiday in Hawaii, remembers collecting signatures in the hope that she and her future grandchildren would one day walk the streets of Waikiki as a tribute to the slain civil rights leader.

Joyner says about 20 different ethnic groups campaigned for the holiday until then-Gov. John Waihee proclaimed the first Martin Luther King Jr. Day in Hawaii in 1989.

"It gives me chicken skin," said Talbott, about the vision turned reality. She and her grandchildren march in the parade every year.

Before the event, the Rev. Walter Brownridge, dean at St. Andrew’s Cathedral, intends to ride with sanitation workers Monday morning during their rubbish pickup in remembrance of King, who was assassinated while supporting Memphis garbage workers on strike.

The unity rally continues all day following the parade, bringing the Kapiolani bandstand to life with music, entertainment, food and a children’s playground area.