Rising Racism Cited at Rites Honoring King

Civil rights leaders celebrating the second annual holiday honoring the birth of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said racism is on the rise and vowed to return Saturday to all-white Forsyth County, Ga., where a march lauding King was attacked by Ku Klux Klan members last weekend.

As liberty bells rang and festivities were held across the country Monday, Coretta Scott King joined in ceremonies here at the tomb of her assassinated husband. Standing with Secretary of State George P. Shultz and black leaders, she said the Forsyth attack was a reminder “that the struggle for freedom and justice is not over and Martin’s dream is not fully realized.”

Shultz echoed that sentiment during an earlier service at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King served as co-pastor. “Howard Beach, Forsyth County, just the names of places but already they are coming to stand for everything Dr. King fought against,” he said. “Freedom never sleeps, and the struggle never ends.”

Howard Beach is the New York suburb where a gang of white youths beat three black men last month. One of the men was killed by a car as he fled the attack.

Such attacks show that “racism, hate and bigotry are on the rise,” Mrs. King said. She and civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and Southern Christian Leadership Conference President Joseph Lowery said they would lead the second march in Forsyth County.

“In the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr., we must rise up to meet hatred with love, to match bigotry with courage and to resist violent acts with nonviolence,” she said at a news conference.

Eight people were arrested near the Forsyth County town of Cummings on Saturday after 90 marchers were blocked by about 400 counterdemonstrators, including KKK members. The marchers climbed back aboard buses when stones were thrown and police officers could not control the crowd. Some slight injuries were reported.

Ovation for March Leaders

The two leaders of the Saturday march--Atlanta City Councilman Hosea Williams and Dean Carter, a white resident of nearby Hall County--received an ovation at the Ebenezer service, which serves as the centerpiece for the national celebration honoring King.

Shultz, representing the Reagan Administration, described a recent visit to the site of a slave trading post in Senegal where numerous Africans embarked for a life of slavery in the new world.

“It’s a strange feeling for any American, black or white, to stand in that slave house, thinking about what the new world was going to bring to all those men, women and children who made the crossing and all that they might bring to this country,” he said. “It’s hard to stand there without thinking of Dr. King. . . .

“He redeemed the country he loved. His struggle goes on today. His voice still leads us and his cause goes on, so that, more and more, throughout the world, we sing with him: ‘Free at last.’ ”

S. Africa Soft-Pedaled

Shultz soft-pedaled the controversial Administration policy of “constructive engagement” with the white regime in South Africa. He urged Americans to support the building of a democratic South Africa as well as committing themselves to ending the “evil of apartheid.”

Mrs. King presented the annual peace prize of the King Center for Non-Violent Social Change to President Corazon Aquino of the Philippines. The award was accepted by Lupita Aquino Kashiwahara, sister of the assassinated Filipino leader, Benigno S. Aquino Jr.

The sermon was delivered by the Rev. Robert Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove. “All people are equal,” Schuller said. “The so-called great people are not greater than you and I--they simply have greater dreams.”

Coretta King appeared recently at the Crystal Cathedral and prompted 30,000 letters from the evangelist’s “Hour of Power” television audience. Only one was negative, Schuller said, “but the battle against segregation is not finished.”

With Jackson, who had delivered an uncharacteristically low-key address earlier, behind him, Schuller developed a familiar Jackson theme. The will to self-respect, he said, is “the final non-negotiable value.”

The three basic principles of life are “I am,” “I can” and “I will,” he said. “And the ‘I am’ always determines the ‘I can.’ ”

“How did Martin Luther King ever think he could break down segregation? Who did he think he was? He thought he was a human being.”

Schuller brought a chuckle when he said he was from California, not Arizona. Arizona Gov. Evan Mecham canceled the King holiday in that state, saying former Gov. Bruce Babbitt had exceeded his authority when he created it.

March in Phoenix

Police estimated that up to 15,000 people marched on the state Capitol in Phoenix Monday bearing petitions backing reinstatement of the holiday.

Elsewhere, the day is a holiday for federal workers and employees of the District of Columbia and of most of the 40 states that observe King’s birthday. Financial markets were open, but schools and banks in many states were closed.

King, a Baptist preacher awarded the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize for his civil rights leadership, was born Jan. 15, 1929. He was shot to death in 1968 in Memphis as he was leading a sanitation workers’ strike. In 1983, Congress enacted a law establishing the King holiday.

In Philadelphia, Samuel R. Pierce Jr., secretary of housing and urban development, tapped the Liberty Bell at 12:30 p.m., triggering the pealing of bells in state capitols across the United States and in London at Parliament’s Big Ben.

Singer Harry Belafonte joined New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo in leading a march by about 1,000 people through Albany before a 2 1/2-hour ecumenical celebration of the battle for human rights that included Buddhist chants and American Indian dancers.

An estimated 3,000 people rode a Martin Luther King Jr. “Freedom Train” on Monday from San Jose to San Francisco, where speakers at a rally urged the audience to pass on King’s message to their children.

“Turn that television off and tell it to your children,” implored the Rev. Amos Brown, who was introduced as having “walked, prayed and (gone) to jail” with King. “Tell it that he stood up for peace, tell it that he stood up for justice, tell it that he stood up for righteousness. . . .”

King service attended by 600 in Santa Ana. Part II, Page 1.