Vicksburg’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade is coming back this year with four heavyweight boxers scheduled to serve as grand marshals, the Vicksburg Post reported.

Organizer Sylvester Walker said boxers Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe, James Toney and Ray Mercer will participate in the Jan. 14 parade.

The parade and a barbecue celebration are scheduled from 2 to 5 p.m. in downtown Vicksburg. The parade will take the traditional route starting at Belmont Street, going north on Washington Street and ending with a cookout on the Farmers Market lot at the corner of Grove and Washington streets.

“The community is invited, but there is a limited amount of food,” Walker told the Post.

Last year there was no parade for the first time in a decade because of a miscommunication on who would organize the event, the newspaper reported.

The four parade grand marshals are coming to Vicksburg by way of promotional agent Lawrence Hardge. Hardge, a native of Vicksburg, invited the boxers to come to help Walker, his childhood friend, make the parade a big hit in its return, the newspaper said.

The boxers will also make promotional appearances at a fundraising event the night before at the Ameristar Casino from 7-9 p.m. Tickets for that event are $10, the Post reported.

Close window X

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Unless otherwise noted, you can republish most of Mississippi Today’s stories for free under a Creative Commons license. For digital publications:

• Look for the "Republish This Story" button underneath each story. To republish online, simply click the button, copy the html code and paste into your Content Management System (CMS).
• Editorial cartoons and photo essays are not included under the Creative Commons license and therefore do not have the "Republish This Story" button option. To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
• You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
• You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
• Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
• If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.

For print publications:

• You have to credit Mississippi Today. We prefer “Author Name, Mississippi Today” in the byline. If you’re not able to add the byline, please include a line at the top of the story that reads: “This story was originally published by Mississippi Today” and include our website, mississippitoday.org.
• You can’t edit our stories, except to reflect relative changes in time, location and editorial style.
• You cannot republish our editorial cartoons, photographs, illustrations or graphics without specific permission (contact our managing editor Kayleigh Skinner for more information). To learn more about our cartoon syndication services, click here.
• Our stories may appear on pages with ads, but not ads specifically sold against our stories.
• You can’t sell or syndicate our stories.
• You can only publish select stories individually — not as a collection.
• Any web site our stories appear on must include a contact for your organization.
• If you share our stories on social media, please tag us in your posts using @MSTODAYnews on Facebook and @MSTODAYnews on Twitter.

If you have any other questions, contact Audience Development Director Lauchlin Fields.

Vicksburg MLK parade is a heavyweight

by Mississippi Today, Mississippi Today
January 5, 2017

<h1>Vicksburg MLK parade is a heavyweight</h1> <p class="byline">by Mississippi Today, Mississippi Today <br />January 5, 2017</p> <p>Vicksburg’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day Parade is coming back this year with four heavyweight boxers scheduled to serve as grand marshals, the Vicksburg Post reported.</p> <p>Organizer Sylvester Walker said boxers Evander Holyfield, Riddick Bowe, James Toney and Ray Mercer will participate in the Jan. 14 parade.</p> <p>The parade and a barbecue&nbsp;celebration are scheduled from 2 to 5 p.m. in downtown Vicksburg.&nbsp;The parade will take the traditional route starting at Belmont Street, going north on Washington Street and ending with a cookout on the Farmers Market lot at the corner of Grove and Washington streets.</p> <p>“The community is invited, but there is a limited amount of food,” Walker told the Post.</p> <p>Last year there was no parade for the first time in a decade because of a miscommunication on who would organize the event, the newspaper reported.</p> <p>The four parade grand marshals are coming to Vicksburg by way of promotional agent Lawrence Hardge. Hardge, a native of Vicksburg, invited the boxers to come to help Walker, his childhood friend, make the parade a big hit in its return, the newspaper said.</p> <p>The boxers will also make promotional appearances at a fundraising event the night before at the Ameristar Casino from 7-9 p.m. Tickets for that event are $10, the Post reported.</p> <p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org/2017/01/05/vicksburg-mlk-parade-is-a-heavyweight/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://mississippitoday.org">Mississippi Today</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://i0.wp.com/mississippitoday.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/MT_square-thumb.jpg?fit=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"><img id="republication-tracker-tool-source" src="https://mississippitoday.org/?republication-pixel=true&post=41255&ga=UA-75003810-1" style="width:1px;height:1px;"></p>

1