Honoring Dr. King, ‘one brave soldier’ who led the battle for freedom.

To 11-year-old Carson schoolgirl Kathryn Chavez, Martin Luther King Jr. embodied the hope that people will some day live together in peace. “He wanted people to practice love and kindness all the time,” she wrote in an essay.

At Morningside High School in Inglewood, student Michael Pearson wrote of King as “one brave soldier . . . who had faith enough to believe that people could win the battle for freedom from the gruesome hands of those who stole it from them like a thief in the night.”

As the South Bay celebrates Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday with parades and festivals, organizers say a major goal is to ensure that the famed civil rights leader remains an inspiration to young people--all born after King was assassinated in 1968.

Essay contests among students in various cities have become a mainstay of the King celebrations.

“Dr. King is a hero and we need to use that to help kids, to get them off drugs, to get them to use their heads,” said Jerry Haywood, coordinator of the sixth annual free Martin Luther King Jr. Festival in Carson.

The festival there is Saturday from noon to 5 p.m. at Avalon Park, 700 E. Gardena St. A highlight of the event will be the presentation of awards for winning essays in the Carson schools contest, which drew 75 entries.

Calling the Carson festival at Avalon Park “more a celebration than a memorial,” Haywood said it will be family oriented with picnicking, ethnic foods, crafts, pony rides and carnival games, and appearances by professional athletes.

Entertainment will be dominated by gospel choirs, but there also will be drill teams, a youth band, a rap performer known as The Messenger who tries to steer young people in positive directions, and a recitation of King’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech by Kevin Payne.

Former U.S. Rep. Shirley A. Chisholm of New York will emphasize youth and education as principal speaker at Inglewood’s seventh annual King celebration Monday.

Students here too will read essays and artwork inspired by King’s life will be on display.

The celebration begins with a 9 a.m. march from the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center at Darby Park, 3400 W. Arbor Vitae St., to the First Church of God, 9550 Crenshaw Blvd. Chisholm will speak at an ecumenical service at the church. Inglewood organizers hope as many as 3,000 will be on hand for the celebration.

The march will be a reminder of civil rights marches; no floats, no twirlers, but mostly people joining together to remember how King’s nonviolent protest influenced the United States.

Anyone may join in the 30-minute march, which will have music from the combined Inglewood and Morningside high school bands. “It will be people of all colors and faces from all over,” Thomas said.

The opening event of Gardena’s King celebration is a youth program 7 p.m. tonight at Rowley Memorial Park, 13220 S. Van Ness Ave. Young people will perform music, give dramatic readings and display their art.

Arthur Johnson, who heads the Gardena King committee, said he began the celebration 16 years ago as a small program for young people.

It’s no longer small.

At 10 a.m. Saturday, a parade will step off from Rowley and head for the Civic Center. The parade will include television celebrities, seven high school bands and an equestrian unit. Johnson calls the city’s King celebration “a people’s event” involving people from all of the city’s ethnic and racial groups.

And at 7 p.m. that evening, the remembrance will conclude with commemorative program at Nakaoka Memorial Community Center, 1700 W. 162nd St.

“I want it to be an event for all people, to let us know we can all live together in Gardena,” he said.

That feeling is reflected in all the celebrations.

Inglewood’s Thomas said she believes King stood for “freedom for all people . . . the togetherness of all races.”

And sixth-grade essayist Shanita Garrett wrote that if King were alive today, he would probably would try to stop gang violence and drug dealing. He would stress the value of education “as a stepping stone to future success” and as a way to break down racism and prejudice.

“Dr. King’s dream still lives on . . . after his death,” wrote the Inglewood student. “(It) will lead me in the right direction to success.”