Scores will gather next week to celebrate the life and impact of a man some call the greatest-ever American.</p><p>Martin Luther King Jr. Day events will begin at City Hall, 520 J. St, at 10:30 a.m. Monday. The march and speeches that follow are organized by Kente Women's Club.</p><p>President Jettie Marshall said the march's purpose is to open the eyes of children to the work of the civil rights leader who marched on Washington, D.C., and later was assassinated after speaking on behalf of striking sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn.</p><p>"We're still trying to educate the younger ones," Marshall said.</p><p>King was instrumental in pushing the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Marshall said his efforts reverberate in Los Banos today.</p><p>Marshall said she is happy to see that the march continues to draw support for King, whose "I Have a Dream" speech moved so many. </p><p>After some secular speeches at City Hall, marchers will make their way to D Street's First Baptist Church to hear keynote speaker the Rev. Dennis Turner.</p><p>Ruby Bland, a Kente member, said the orator of the 1968 "I've Been to the Mountaintop" speech needs to be celebrated.</p><p>"I think it's just very important that we have a march to keep up with Dr. King's dream," Bland said.</p><p>In his 1963 "Letter From Birmingham Jail," King bucked his critics who said equality will come with time. He pushed for progress.</p><p>"We must come to see that human progress never rolls in on wheels of inevitability," he wrote.</p><p>For more on the day's events, call Bland at (209) 826-4146.</p><p>Enterprise reporter Thaddeus Miller can be reached at (209) 388-6562 or by email at tmiller@losbanosenterprise.com.