Oklahoma Student Selected To Make OKC MLK Parade Documentary

When President Ronald Reagan signed into law the King holiday in 1986, community leaders were already at work here in Oklahoma City

“We just started a small group of us planted a tree at the state capital,” said former state senator Angela Monson.

Monson was a member of the original OKC MLK day coalition. The tree at the capital was planted in 1981. It was the beginning of what is now a weekend of events including the big parade.

“We were one of the first, and we were at one point the largest parade in the country, now I hear we are the third of the sixth, but still one of the biggies,” said Monson.

As the years go by it has become important to the coalition the historic facts of the parade be documented for future generations.

“Because there were people along this journey that were really in opposition to what we were doing to demonstrate what we were doing to demonstrate the importance of Dr. King’s life and what he lived for and what he died for,” said Monson.

Companies began submitting bids for a video project to document the history of the parade here in Oklahoma City.

“I knew I had to make the best presentation, have the most enthusiasm present myself in the best was possible,” said documentary creator, Khiry Montgomery.

Montgomery is a 21-year-old film student at Francis Tuttle Vo-tech that found his passion for video through social media.

“Funny enough I was on Tik Tok, and I gained a following just for making skits and doing video stuff and I was like oh, I have a passion for video stuff, let me go into it,” said Montgomery.

He had done some editing and video work for class, but this was a big project for him.

“When I found out I got the part I was very excited because I’m not going to lie, I was tearing up the day before because I was like, I need this part, I need this part, I was like hungry for it,” said Montgomery.

His plan going into the project was to talk with the living members of the coalition about the early days of the parade and the holiday.

“I had sometimes when I was like, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to do this,” said Montgomery.

“The documentary that fact that it exists is a great way to make sure that we don’t forget,” said Monson.

Working on the project had a big impact on Montgomery.

“If you want to do something in life, it takes sacrifices, it takes failures, just like to coalition,” said Montgomery.

Montgomery leaned on advice from his teachers at Francis Tuttle. The project was shown at the silent MLK march. It will be posted to social media pages on Tuesday.