After walking in the annual MLK Day March on South Broadway Monday morning, the crowd listens to the speakers of the program. (Jennifer Scott/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

In honor of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the community gathered Monday for the 39th annual Tyler Together Race Relations MLK March in downtown Tyler.

The march began at the Tyler Public Library and concluded at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, where an annual program was held. The program featured performances and speakers including a keynote address from Dr. Mary Breaux Wright.

Organizers said the event’s theme of “Mission Possible: Protect Freedom, Justice, & Democracy” emphasizes the importance of unity, nonviolence, and collective action in fostering a more equitable society.

The King holiday “honors the total legacy of King; focuses on the issue of civil rights; highlights the use of nonviolence to promote change; and calls people into public service,” according to the Constitution Center.

King was born on Jan. 15, 1929, but MLK Day is marked every year on the third Monday in January. The civil rights leader’s birthday was finally approved as a federal holiday in 1983, and all 50 states made it a state government holiday by 2000, according to the Constitution Center.