Celebrate Dr. King aboard the Freedom train

On Monday morning, as the nation remembers the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., one very special train will leave Caltrain’s Diridon Station at 9:30 a.m.

In its 85-minute journey up the Peninsula, the Freedom Train will travel approximately the distance that took civil rights marchers 18 days to cover in 1965, between Selma and Montgomery, Alabama.

Tickets to the special train are $10 and are available before the ride at Diridon station in San Jose. The train will also board at Sunnyvale, Palo Alto, and San Mateo before arriving in The City at 10:55 a.m.

Freedom Train riders are asked to arrive no later than 8:30 at Diridon station.

A Freedom Train ticket is good for the Freedom Train north to San Francisco, and then any other regular Caltrain going back south.

If the train sells out, as it has in the past, riders can board any other northbound Caltrain to attend afternoon festivities in The City. Caltrain is running a regular weekday schedule Monday, so trains will leave San Jose every hour at 10 minutes past throughout the day.

The Northern California Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Foundation has a schedule of events planned for San Francisco’s Yerba Buena Gardens Monday afternoon.

The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Association of Santa Clara has offered this special train for more than 25 years. For more information, contact 408-861-5323 or via e-mail at mlkinfo@yahoo.com.

Whether or not you go, accept this Russian techno remix of Dr. King’s “I Have A Dream” speech as evidence that his message continues to be heard around the world, in ways and in circles perhaps Dr. King himself may not have imagined.

Jesse Garnier

Jesse Garnier is the editor and founder of SFBay. A Mission District native, he also teaches journalism as associate professor at San Francisco State University.