All photos and text are by Frisc contributor Pamela Gentile.
The first observance of the holiday to commemorate and celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came on Jan. 20, 1986.
In King’s hometown of Atlanta, his widow Coretta Scott King laid a wreath on his tomb and presented the King Peace Prize to Bishop Desmond Tutu for his anti-apartheid work.
Here in San Francisco, as temperatures hovered in the mid-50s, that historic day started at City Hall, with speeches by Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church, Mayor Dianne Feinstein, and others.
Back when the holiday approached, I was still starting out as a photographer and used to shoot a lot of parades. (Eventually I joined the staff of SF Weekly.) Without a press pass, I would often get kicked off the street by police. I don’t recall if that happened on that day; most likely it did. Nevertheless, I lasted long enough to take pictures throughout. Other than the photo of Feinstein, then-California Assembly speaker Willie Brown, and Rev. Williams, I cannot identify any of the subjects.
They are snapshots of a very different SF, but they’re a reminder that we continue to struggle to build a more diverse and equitable city (and country) for all.
Pamela Gentile is a San Francisco photographer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, SF Chronicle, and many other publications. She shoots regularly for The Frisc.