MLK Parade Entry by SD College of Continuing Education Offers Nod to Local Artist Wade

The San Diego College of Continuing Education will march Sunday to honor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a special sculpture aboard the college’s float.

The 42nd annual parade to honor King is scheduled for 10 a.m. along the Embarcadero on Harbor Drive. 

This year’s competition float, designed by welding students under the direction of Master Welder Mike Bradbury, will feature late artist Rossie Wade, former treasurer and president of the San Diego Fine Arts Guild.

The float is 9×20 and has two rotating features, the Wade sculpture and another focused on King’s life story and historic links to the college and Southeastern San Diego. 

Wade once served as an Artist in Residence at the Educational Cultural Complex, the college’s flagship campus in Mountain View.

He also created “The Black Family” sculpture in 1974, a treasured piece of art and long-time community symbol of hope. The sculpture, originally made out of wood, has since deteriorated. A metal replica made by the college’s welding department soon will replace the sculpture, which used to stand in Mountain View Park.

SDCCE President Dr. Tina M. King, who will march in the parade, praised the float entry and called Wade an “an unsung hero who believed in cultivating the love and essence of the Black family, art and education for all.”

“The annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Parade is deeply significant to our college,” she said in a statement. “We take great pride in the history of the origins of the MLK Parade that was started many years ago by pillars in our community at San Diego College of Continuing Education.”

The college’s tuition-free welding certificate programs and classes offer students the chance to prepare to enter the workforce in the welding, shipping and aerospace industries, with the float-building opportunity providing real-world experience.

Past float entries will be memorialized at the Educational Cultural Complex on Ocean View Boulevard as part of the college’s Civil Rights history museum, which is backed by a $35 million state renovation grant.

Events at the complex’s theater have included appearances by King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, award-winning musician and humanitarian Stevie Wonder and poet Maya Angelou.