“This is not something that’s a phase for us, but the work continues,” Ford said.
Zeta Sigma Lambda hosts the annual parade in San Diego, which features floats, high school bands, drill teams, youth organizations and churches. While the parade didn’t happen this year, Ford said -- as he looked back on a challenging year -- that King’s message of peace and quality remains timely, from the pandemic to civil unrest to, most recently, the Capitol being stormed by people lined to white supremacist groups.
“When I was a young man, I said a prayer: Lord, let me see a day where my sons, daughters, granddaughters, my kids would not see what I saw when I was in my 20s and 30s," Ford said, "but here we are now, in 2021, so I guess that prayer is going to have to extend. Hopefully my great-grandkids will see a day where none of this stuff exists…. We’re not post-racial just yet. There’s still a lot of work to be done. A lot of progress has been made, but still there’s a lot of work to be done.".