South Floridians braved frigid but sunny weather from Miami to the Palm Beaches to celebrate the Martin Luther King Jr. Day federal holiday, officially the third Monday of January each year, as thousands came out for breakfasts, luncheons, parades and lectures to mark the annual nationwide observance.

Despite temperatures dipping below 50 degrees throughout the weekend, scores of people cheered the annual MLK Day parade in Liberty City, founded in 1977 by local activist, educator and chaplain Dr. Preston W. Marshall Jr., which organizers say is the country’s oldest parade celebrating Civil Rights Movement icon Dr. King, reported WLRN radio. Hundreds came out to see Jo Marie Payton, most noted for her role on the television’s “Family Matters,” as grand marshal for this year’s parade.

The scene was similar Saturday at the Riviera Beach MLK Parade, where attendees donned blankets strewn over their folding chairs to shield themselves from the cold, and smiled as public officials waved to them from passing cars, as other vehicles honored the city’s own late American Idol Willie Spence, and recognized organizations such as the Mothers Against Murders Association, while youths from various area schools such as Bear Lakes Middle danced, played their musical instruments, and performed.

In Fort Lauderdale on Monday, festivalgoers again enjoyed the local MLK Day parade down Sistrunk Boulevard, and the festivities at the end of the route. Others participated in myriad other activities from Plantation, where Pastor Tony Durante of Our Savior Lutheran Church was speaker for the city’s MLK Day Celebration, to Delray Beach, where the Spady Cultural Heritage Museum again hosted several hundred attendees Monday at the annual MLK Brunch.

At the Palm Beach County Convention Center, the Martin Luther King Jr. Coordinating Committee (MLKCC) of West Palm Beach highlighted its annual monthlong slate of activities commemorating and building on the legacy of the Civil Rights Movement, and the Jan. 15 birthday of the nation’s chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in protest of racial discrimination in federal and state law. The MLKCC, founded and led by Executive Director Edith C. Bush, who this year autographed copies of her new memoir, “My Faith, My Family, My Friends,” hosted Broward State Attorney Harold Pryor, the first African American elected to that position in Florida, as keynote speaker Monday during their 42nd Annual Scholarship Breakfast. Consistent with the MLKCC’s emphasis on having younger generations learn about the legacy of slavery, and the Civil Rights Movement, the presence of youths again was unmistakable among the hundreds of attendees. (More photos Page 4B.)