The annual Martin Luther King Jr. parade will be at 1 p.m. Saturday beginning at Granger Park and making its way to Lafayette Square in downtown LaGrange.

“We want everyone to remember Dr. King,” said parade chairwoman Yvonne Pittman.

Pittman’s sorority, the Theta Xi Zeta chapter of Zeta Phi Beta, is the parade sponsor.

About 50 entries are expected in the parade, which is in its 15th year.

The deadline for entries is Monday. Fees are $25 for cars, $15 for walkers or steppers, and $40 for floats. Candy and other items may not be thrown during the parade because of the risk of injury, organizers said.

This year’s parade will have two grand marshals, Fred Snellings and Alvin Paige.

Snellings, a graduate of East Depot High School in LaGrange and current Peachtree City resident, is the deputy commissioner of the Georgia Department of Public Safety. He oversees several divisions from field operations such as the SWAT team to planning and operations review and the state Capitol police.

Snellings served with the Federal Bureau of Investigation from 1983 until 2005.

He is the son of Goldie Snellings of LaGrange and the late Fred Snellings Sr. and brother of Thomasina Thornton, Samuel Snellings and Patricia Reed, all of LaGrange.

Paige, another LaGrange native, was the artist-in-residence at American International College in Springfield, Mass. Paige has traveled the world to show his art and was invited to an international symposium in Denmark on art and nature in 1993. In 1994, he was a guest speaker and award presenter at the Belfast Young Contemporaries Exhibition in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Paige’s sisters, Elizabeth Thornton and Harriet Paige, still live in LaGrange, and his brother, Ralph Paige, is a resident of Pine Mountain. Paige recently has suffered health problems and may not be able to attend, Pittman said.

Pittman said she hopes many area residents – black and white – attend the parade.

“I want LaGrange to become one. I just want unity,” she said. “I have had a vision in my mind lately of us all walking hand in hand, just like Martin Luther King did back in the civil rights movement. We need to keep his dream and his memory alive.”

n To register for the parade, call Pittman at (706) 884-2740 or at (706) 616-2484.

Jennifer Shrader can be reached at jshrader@ lagrangenews.com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 236.