The 2023 MLK Walk Across the St. Johns Bridge Will Take Place Jan. 21

The event is being held in honor of the march Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.

St John's Bridge (Ruvim Miksanskiy)
By Bennett Campbell Ferguson

Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations are taking place across Portland on Monday. But keep a place on your calendar for Saturday, Jan. 21. That’s when Love Is King, in partnership with the Forest Park Conservancy, will host Walk the Walk, the 2023 MLK Walk Across the St. Johns Bridge.

The event is being held in honor of the start of Black History Month and the marches Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led from Selma to Montgomery in 1965, traversing a 54-mile highway in one of the most powerful and impactful civil rights demonstrations.

Walk the Walk will begin at Cathedral Park at 9 am with a short presentation on the civil rights movement and Bloody Sunday: March 7, 1965, the day the marchers in Selma were attacked and beaten by white state troopers and sheriff’s deputies on the Edmund Pettis Bridge.

At 9:30 am, participants will begin walking across the St. Johns Bridge, commemorating the historic moment when Dr. King led civil rights demonstrators across the Edmund Pettus Bridge.

Participating in Walk the Walk is free, but participants are encouraged to register for the event.

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