{"id":1401,"date":"2026-01-14T18:10:44","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T02:10:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/90220.org\/?p=1401"},"modified":"2026-01-22T21:23:35","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T05:23:35","slug":"dr-adrian-dove","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/90220.org\/?p=1401","title":{"rendered":"Dr. ADRIAN DOVE"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dove has had a life full of pioneering moments, including working alongside Martin Luther King Jr.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

“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.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That act of civil disobedience was the first of many for Dove.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After his family relocated to California, Dove eventually graduated from Compton High School<\/strong> and later Harvard University Graduate School.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Watts Riots prompted Dove to return home to California.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Dove returned to Los Angeles again, this time to lead the nation’s first city level minority business enterprise office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Dove proudly reflects on his career as he looks ahead at a well-deserved retirement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n