L.A. Celebrates King’s Cause at Parades, Rallies

They marched Monday--through the streets of South Los Angeles, down the boulevards of Beverly Hills, even to a small church in Inglewood--to protest apartheid, to celebrate civil rights and, above all, to honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

It would have been King’s 61st birthday, and Southern Californians celebrated the work of the slain civil rights activist by parading down the Los Angeles thoroughfare that bears his name, protesting the racism that still exists in America and abroad, and effectively shutting down an institution that did not close for the federal holiday.

Gray skies hinted of rain, but police estimated that 70,000 people braved the chill air to watch the fifth annual King Birthday Parade, which began at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza, wound down King Boulevard and ended, 3.2 miles away, at the county Museum of Natural History in Exposition Park.

“Those words ‘we shall overcome’ go a long way. They’re even saying it in Russia,” said a smiling Ivan Jones, 73, as he watched his granddaughters march in the parade, which attracted a crowd more than three times the size of last year’s. “It comes from Martin Luther King. Just keep it in your mind that we can do it, that we can overcome it.”

“Now we have a black governor, and it has nothing to do with the pigmentation of his skin,” said Keith Strong, 36, referring to Lawrence Douglas Wilder, the newly inaugurated governor of Virginia. “It has to do with his ability. That’s what Martin Luther King was talking about.”

Amid the sounds of marching bands and high school drill teams were many somber and poignant declarations of African-American pride. A woman sold “Do the Right Thing” buttons and carried a sign that read “I Love Being Black.” Another stood in the cool air with a sweat shirt that declared, “I Have Come This Far by Faith,” and a family baked a special birthday cake for Dr. King and sold pieces of it, and other food items, from their front lawn.

“I do this for his birthday,” said Margie Manyweather, who spent a week planning and cooking the sweet potato pies, German chocolate cake and barbecued chicken her family sold. “What little money I make, I donate to the homeless.”

The image of another civil rights hero, one who has no holiday, also dotted the crowd. Gina Temple, 24, kept herself warm in a sweat shirt bearing a likeness of Malcolm X, while a vendor nearby sold T-shirts that showed Malcolm X and King shaking hands, over the words “Unity Is Strength.”

“I think, eventually, it should not be only King’s birthday (that we celebrate),” said Donyielle Holley, 24. “It should be a day where we celebrate all black leaders.”

Meanwhile, while Mayor Tom Bradley rang the City Hall bell as part of a nationwide, simultaneous bell-ringing ceremony in honor of King, about 120 activists gathered in front of Security Pacific National Bank’s downtown headquarters to protest a corporate decision to open more than 550 of its offices, despite the federal holiday.

“When we realized that Security Pacific stood alone among banks, we thought they should be the focus of a protest,” said Susan Anderson of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles. “We are worried that the message many businesses and individuals will get because of Security Pacific’s example is that the holiday is an optional one.”

Deborah Lewis, a Security Pacific spokeswoman, said that “the sole purpose of the decision is to benefit our customers.” She added that 20 branches did not open Monday, or later decided to close for the holiday.

After the downtown protest ended, some of the participants drove to Beverly Hills to join more than 2,000 students and adult activists demonstrating in front of the former South African Consulate offices on Wilshire Boulevard. The group then marched along Wilshire to the current consulate on La Cienega Boulevard, where they staged a three-hour rally.

Speakers criticized apartheid in South Africa as well as the racism and inequities that they say still exist in the United States.

Actress Alfre Woodard, directing her words at South African President Frederik W. de Klerk, said, “You are dressing up that tired old whore, apartheid, and squiring her out to the ball . . . .

“And the shame is that some people in their drunken revelry are willing to dance with her, George Bush.

“Mr. Bush, how dare you qualify freedom by the color of the people who seek it?” Woodard said to the audience that had crowded the steps. She was alluding to U.S. support for the social revolution taking place in Eastern Europe while ignoring similar struggles in Central America. “That is the dirty secret of our foreign policy.”

A group representing the Nation of Islam used the holiday to protest alleged Los Angeles police harassment of blacks during a Jan. 3 fight between 24 officers and 13 Muslims in the Crenshaw District. The incident began after a traffic stop and resulted in injuries to several members of each group and the arrests of all 13 Muslims.

“We must come together in peace,” Malik Muhammad, a member of the Brotherhood of the Black Man, told a crowd of about 100 at the rally in Leimert Park. “We don’t have anything against the law. . . . They just didn’t approach us in the right way, that’s all.

Muslim leaders have accused police of provoking the disturbance by unnecessarily trying to force blacks to lie down on the pavement.

Despite a meeting with police to discuss the concerns, the 13 arrestees--all members of the brotherhood--face possible felony charges, according to police.

Other holiday events Monday included a march in Inglewood that ended with a service at the First Church of God.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Toni Morrison gave the keynote speech at the SCLC’s 13th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Dinner at the Bonaventure.

Times staff writer David Ferrell contributed to this story.