Photo Focus: Alpha Phi Alpha Hosts St. Thomas Martin Luther King Jr. Peace March

Marchers made their way up Main Street on St. Thomas on Martin Luther King Jr. Day as the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity hosted a peace march in honor of the late civil rights leader.

School groups, Girl Scouts, marching bands, majorettes, fraternities, sororities and labor leaders joined the line of march from Rothschild Francis Market Square to Emancipation Garden. Merchants and tourists joined V.I. residents and parents of student marchers, taking in the spectacle. Grand Marshal Moleto Smith captured the spirit of the day, reflecting on the holiday and the inauguration of a new U.S. president.

“I know there’s a lot of things happening today — some in Washington, D.C., but this is what’s happening here,” Smith said. “Since 1986, when Martin Luther King Day was first observed as a federal holiday, millions of people throughout the world and the country commemorate this with marches and rallies.”