Reno community members gathered downtown Saturday to create a caravan celebrating the naming of Highway 395 North/Interstate 580 as the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Highway. The event was organized by the Northern Nevada Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Committee.
KaPreace Young, an event organizer and president of the Northern Nevada Black Cultural Awareness Society, said many are calling it “the highway of hope.” She explained that the event was, in part, to keep Martin Luther King Jr.’s message and memory alive outside of the noted holiday.
While the highway was named after King in 1998, Young said not many people seem to know of that fact and that in the future she’d like to see more signage featuring the highway’s name. The named portion of the highway stretches along Interstate 580 (formerly Highway 395) from Mt. Rose Highway north to Bordertown.
Caravan participants gathered at the Washoe County parking lot on Court Street to write messages on their cars or affix Martin Luther King Jr.’s portrait in their windows. Reno Police officers escorted the caravan from the parking lot down Mill Street and all the way to the highway. Construction limited the amount of highway that the caravan could drive.
