Attorney Benjamin Crump served as grand marshal of this year’s Kingdom Day Parade. Parade organizer Adrian Dove says he will fight to retain control of the parade.
Photo by Viola Gray
Adrian Dove says he will fight to maintain parade
By Stephen Oduntan
Contributing Writer
LOS ANGELES — The longtime organizer of the city’s parade honoring Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday says he will petition city officials to overturn a decision to give the parade permit to a rival vendor.
Adrian Dove, who has organized the Kingdom Day Parade for more than 25 years, says he will appeal the city’s decision last month to award the parade permit to Bakewell Media, which also sponsors the local Taste of Soul festival. Dove also says he will stage a non-permitted march and demonstration on Martin Luther King Jr. Day next January to challenge the city-sanctioned parade.
“I’m ready for a fight,” said Dove, 90. “I’m a young 90, and I’m not walking away. I’m going to take it to the streets — exactly what Dr. King would have done if they tried to take his parade in his name.”
The clash stems from a decision by the Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners, which rescinded Dove’s original permit last month. Sarah E. Bell, public information director for the commission, said both CORE (Dove’s group) and Bakewell Media initially filed applications outside the six-month window allowed for so-called First Amendment events in the city.
Bell said CORE’s application was mistakenly processed and a permit issued in error. That permit was rescinded so the process could restart under the Los Angeles Municipal Code, and both groups reapplied.
Because the new applications proposed parades at a similar time and place, Commission President Maria “Teresa” Sanchez-Gordon designated herself to decide which to approve. Bell said both applications were forwarded with recommendations for approval, but Sanchez-Gordon awarded the permit to Bakewell Media because its corrected filing arrived first.
Bell added that CORE was offered the chance to amend its application — by changing time or location — but declined. The department then denied CORE’s permit on the ground that the proposed event “would interfere with another event, street closure or other activity for which a permit has already been issued.”
On Sept. 22, the Police Permit Review Panel voted 4–1 to uphold the denial, leaving CORE with no further administrative appeal.
Dove rejects that explanation, calling the process “given, then stolen.”
“They said too early, then too late,” he said. “That’s not how you treat a parade that’s never had violence or problems. That’s not how you honor Dr. King.”
Until recently, Dove said he would stage a Saturday march and rebroadcast it on ABC the following Monday to compete with the Bakewell-run parade. He now says that plan collapsed after ABC turned its attention to Bakewell Media.
“Danny went to ABC and got them to cover his parade,” Dove said. “So I decided: forget Saturday, forget trying to work around them. I’m going to protest their parade on the actual day.”
Dove says supporters will occupy portions of the traditional King and Crenshaw Boulevards route even without a city permit.
“They can arrest me if they want,” he said. “For 40 years we’ve run this parade without gang incidents, without violence, with respect. To just take it away on a technicality is wrong. I’m tired of being respectful while they play games with us.”
Civil rights leader Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable, has publicly backed Dove. At a Sept. 29 news conference in Leimert Park, Hutchinson called on Mayor Karen Bass and the City Council to restore the parade to its longtime organizers.
“The Kingdom Day Parade is and has been a vital event for decades in Los Angeles that annually honors Dr. King,” Hutchinson said. “Mayor Bass and the City Council can ensure it remains that showcase event by renewing the permit under Dr. Dove’s continued leadership.”
He added: “It’s not over — the fight has just begun.”
Dove’s adviser, Jamiah Mauri Bey, called the decision “opportunistic” and said the fight is over control of the parade’s brand.
“They’re using the permit as a vehicle to steal the brand,” Bey said.
Dove also voiced frustration with City Hall. He said he has been unable to reach Bass, despite her past involvement with the parade, and said Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson once told him he was “too old” to be running it — a claim Harris-Dawson has not addressed directly to The Wave.
Bakewell Media did not respond to multiple phone calls and emails from The Wave. In public statements, Sentinel Publisher Danny J. Bakewell Sr. said, “We are honored to have been selected to organize and produce the 2026 MLK Day Parade by the city of Los Angeles. We don’t take this selection lightly and we are confident that we will bring an event that meets the high standards of excellence our community and Dr. King’s legacy deserve.”
Danny Bakewell Jr., the Sentinel’s executive editor, said organizers intend to “produce a parade like none our community has ever seen.”
Councilwoman Heather Hutt, whose district the parade travels through, praised Bakewell Media’s record of staging large cultural events. Council President Harris-Dawson said the Bakewells “will carry that same legacy forward” and bring the impact of their annual Taste of Soul festival. Neither Hutt nor Harris-Dawson responded to The Wave’s direct requests for comment; their remarks appeared in other media coverage.
The Wave has requested the competing applications, staff recommendations and full records from the Sept. 17 and Sept. 22 hearings. Agendas listed the matter as an “Appeal of Denial of Parade Permit” without naming applicants. The commission has released agendas and meeting recordings; additional records are pending.
With the official parade advancing under Bakewell Media and Dove pledging a civil-disobedience march along the same route, Los Angeles may see celebration and protest collide on Jan. 19, 2026. Sponsors, broadcasters and elected officials could be forced to choose between backing the city’s permit holders or standing with the man who helped build the Kingdom Day Parade into one of the nation’s most visible tributes to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Stephen Oduntan is a freelance writer for Wave Newspapers.
