King Parade Puts Best Foot Forward Downtown

Thousands from San Diego’s black community turned out Saturday to honor slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. by marching in joyous procession down the very thoroughfare that some other San Diegans don’t want named Martin Luther King Way.

Past plate-glass windows plastered with “Keep Market Street” signs paraded politicians in Cadillacs, drum majorettes, Shriners in fezes, Sugar Ray Robinson, van clubs, drug-treatment programs, low riders, church groups, Boys Clubs and Mr. Black San Diego.

“It’s like taking control of what is yours,” said Fern James, director of the San Diego Organizing Project, a Southeast San Diego-based group that James said organizes around issues such as housing and drugs and encourages people to “take power.”

The Martin Luther King Day parade, born six years ago in Southeast San Diego, was moved for the first time this year into downtown San Diego--a decision that some said reflected the spirit of King, while others contended it represented a capitulation to the white community.

The parade’s organizers this year, the Alpha Phi Alpha scholarship fund, said the move affirmed their support for the San Diego City Council’s controversial decision last April to change Market Street’s name to Martin Luther King Way.

But critics of the route change accused the organizers of moving the parade to attract people unwilling to go into Southeast San Diego. They objected to sending business to the very downtown business people who are now petitioning to have the City Council’s decision reversed.

“It’s something that Southeast San Diego built up, and they took it away from us to move it downtown,” Art Baker, a Southeast resident, said Saturday.

Others found they liked the change.

Art Curry, director of the Encanto Boys’ Club, said older boys had been unwilling to march in the past, “reluctant to cross neighborhood boundaries” because of gangs. Jacquin Wilkins said the new route would avoid pickpockets, purse-snatchers and “people getting hit on the side of the head.”

The entire event appeared benevolent and peaceable as the parade poured down Martin Luther King Way from Golden Hill toward the glittering blue bay, weaving back and forth across the broad street, past restaurant-supply stores and thrift stores and the sidewalk crowded with lawn chairs and children squatting at the curb.

There was Rigo Reyes in his hunter green candy-laquered 1959 Impala celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Amigos low-rider club. Further down the line came C. Ray George, the Illustrious Potentate of the Shriners’ Isis Temple 102, riding atop a convertible in his gold-studded potentate’s collar.

There was the Border Patrol and the Bookmobile, Smokey Bear, Ronald McDonald and “the second-highest ranking school crossing guard in the county.” Pink-faced TV personalities waved from the back seat of a convertible 1929 Lincoln. The Council of Black Engineers and Scientists rode by, brandishing beakers of bubbling red water and dry ice, venting steam.

“I have a dream,” came King’s famous words, crackling from suitcase radios and public address systems. “That one day, even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering in persecution and injustice will be transformed into an oasis . . . “

Mayor Maureen O’Connor cruised by in an open-topped, red, trolley track-servicing truck, accompanied by Fro Brigham on trumpet and Gary Thompson on slide trombone.

“What controversy?” she replied, smiling, when asked if the controversy over the route had affected the parade. “I think it’s great. People are coming out and supporting it. We’re here to honor Martin Luther King and that’s what we’re doing.”

Later came Councilman William Jones, who represents Southeast San Diego, atop a gleaming black Cadillac Biarritz, his feet hanging down through the sunroof. Nearby chugged Council members Mike Gotch and Judy McCarty in an orange convertible Volkswagen bug.

“It’s great! Better than ever,” Gotch said, adding that he has participated in every Martin Luther King Day parade since its inception. Asked whether he had noticed a relatively small turnout from the white community, Gotch thought a moment, then said simply, “Takes time.”

Others had a different reaction.

“People are afraid to go to Southeast, and they’re no less afraid to downtown,” said Stewart Kocivar, a social worker on roller skates. Said Fred Minshall, a mental-health worker, who is white, “I think the white community in San Diego is very racist. They wouldn’t show up if you held it in La Jolla.”

The plate-glass windows of the Sanderson Fixture Co. were decorated with printed posters saying, “Keep Market Street. A part of San Diego’s History since 1915.” The same signs were in the Ray Dobson Welding Shop and Krasne’s Gun Shop and numerous other stores on the street.

“It’s cost the city and merchants too much money,” said Lynn Woodruff, sitting in her Creative Stitchery Gallery, discussing the name change, which she opposes. “This is the old main street of the town, historically.”

Added J. S. Song, manager of Venus Wigs and Beauty Supplies, “Besides, the name’s so long.”