King Day March in Forsyth County Lacks ’87 Violence

About 250 civil rights activists paraded through all-white Forsyth County without incident Saturday. They retraced the route of a march halted by hecklers throwing bottles and rocks a year ago.

The demonstrators sang civil rights anthems and hymns and carried signs. They were escorted by State Patrol troopers and Georgia Bureau of Investigation agents. A total of 425 state and county officers policed the march, officials said.

A similar procession on Jan. 17, 1987, was disrupted when a crowd of about 400 whites pelted the 75 marchers with mud, rocks and bottles.

On Saturday, about 75 whites, some in military garb, rallied on private property they had leased near the march route. No incidents were reported.

Feels ‘Vindicated’

William McFarland, who participated in the march last year, said: “On that day, I was not proud to be an American. I think I feel vindicated.”

The demonstration last year had been initiated by Chuck Blackburn, a white man then living in Forsyth County who wanted to mark the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a brotherhood march. Blackburn received threats from neighbors and canceled his plans. The organization of the march was then taken over by Hosea Williams, an Atlanta city councilman.

In other activities commemorating the Jan. 15 birthday of King, the civil rights leader’s widow, Coretta Scott King, addressed students from around the country who had ridden to Atlanta on an Amtrak train they dubbed “The Freedom Train.”

‘Born to the Movement’

“We were born into the movement,” said Sharon Rogers of Holyoke Community College in Massachusetts. “We were born with the stage set for us. Our parents marched with Dr. King.”

The Saturday night schedule of activities included a student program with TV talk show hostess Oprah Winfrey and an “All Peoples’ Freedom Gala” at the Marriott Marquis hotel.

King, who would have turned 59 last Friday, was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., in 1968. Monday marks the third observance of the national holiday in his honor.