Dr. Dove, who worked alongside MLK, to retire as chairman of LA’s Kingdom Day Parade after 14 years​on February 12, 2025 at 1:06 pm

LOS ANGELES (KABC) — The chairman and CEO of the Los Angeles Kingdom Day Parade, the nation’s largest and longest running celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., is retiring after more than a decade.

90-year-old Dr. Adrian Dove has been at the helm of the parade for 14 years, but that is not the only meaningful work he’s done in his lifetime.

Dove has had a life full of pioneering moments, including working alongside Martin Luther King Jr.

He keeps a “For Whites” sign at his desk as a reminder of when he was 11-years-old on a bus in Dallas.

“A white kid got on, there were several empty seats in front, but he moved the sign behind me, but he said get up [expletive] I want that seat, and he moved the sign behind me,” said Dove. “It was just before my stop; I got up and it occurred to me without thinking. I just grabbed the sign and I still have it.”

That act of civil disobedience was the first of many for Dove.

After his family relocated to California, Dove eventually graduated from Compton High School and later Harvard University Graduate School.

Dove served in the Korean war and worked as a parole officer until he temporarily left California in the mid 1960s to work under Martin Luther King Jr. registering Black voters in the rural South.

The Watts Riots prompted Dove to return home to California.

When Black community members were failing the standard IQ tests given by “post-riot” employment offices, Dove created his “Counterbalance Test of General Intelligence,” as seen on a 1967 Jet Magazine issue.

“I dreamed up 30 quick questions and it became a hit. I went on the Johnny Carson show, got a job writing for the New York Times and Readers Digest,” said Dove.

A picture showed Dove seated behind President Richard Nixon taken in 1970, showcasing his 10 years in the White House at the office management and budget, working under four administrations.

Dove returned to Los Angeles again, this time to lead the nation’s first city level minority business enterprise office.

“I came out of a meeting at the white house, they said the mayor of Los Angeles is calling, Tom Bradley,” said Dove.

Dove proudly reflects on his career as he looks ahead at a well deserved retirement.

“I just feel like I was lucky in life, with a creative streak which is sometimes called a prevarication, but I have been blessed,” said Dove.