King’s Goals, Dreams Assessed

“Behold, this dreamer cometh. . . . Come now therefore, and let us slay him . . . we shall see what will become of his dreams.”

--Genesis 37; 19-20

Paul Clark can still remember the days, not so long ago in the South, when he had to sit in the back of the bus, or drink water from a designated fountain and go to a separate restroom for “colored only.”

Today those blunt reminders of racial segregation laws have disappeared. But Clark, a 52-year-old Santa Ana resident, and others observing Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday said the slain civil rights leader’s nonviolent crusade for justice is still timely in light of problems that continue to plague the black community.

About 1,200 mostly black Orange County residents gathered for emotional services at Valley High School and the Second Baptist Church in Santa Ana to mark what would have been the 61st birthday of the preacher who dreamed that his children would be judged on their character, not their skin color.

In Los Angeles, an estimated 70,000 people watched the fifth annual King Birthday parade from Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza to the county Museum of Natural History, 3.2 miles away in Exposition Park. A group of about 120 activists also demonstrated 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.

In Santa Ana, a standing-room-only congregation at Second Baptist Church shouted its approval during a fiery sermon by Pastor John McReynolds, who exhorted them to fight apartheid in South Africa and proclaim the “theology of self-esteem” at home.

McReynolds said King’s contention was that “African Americans had the right to cash the check of liberty at the bank vaults of freedom and justice.”

But referring to high drop-out, teen pregnancy and crime rates in some black communities, he said: “Our purpose is to challenge our young people toward the powers of real liberty.

“I’m not black because I wear curls,” he said. “I’m not black because I got long fingernails. My blackness is not tied up in how I walk. My blackness is not tied in where I live. A BMW doesn’t make me somebody.

“I am somebody.”

Pastor J. Anthony Boger from the Good Samaritan Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Santa Ana questioned whether Orange County blacks in their civil rights struggle had reached what King called the mountaintop.

“I question today if we are on the mountain at all,” he told a high school group. “We are not on the mountain just because we are now assistant managers and associate directors and vice presidents of Fortune 500 companies. That does not constitute a mountaintop experience.”

He added: “On the mountain Dr. King talked about, there was association without assimilation. You didn’t have to walk like them, dress like them, and talk like them in order to be accepted by them. On King’s mountain, black folks and white folks cared about each other without fake smiles and pretentious eyes.”

Horace Mitchell, vice chancellor of student affairs at UC Irvine, listed King’s legacy of values: Love, peace, brotherhood, civil and human rights, freedom, justice, faith and service.

“He gave us a new meaning of justice--to serve,” Mitchell declared. “He said all of us can be great because all of us can serve.”

Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the county Human Relations Commission, told the congregation that he likes to think his county-funded office, formed in 1971, carries on King’s goal of eliminating prejudice and intolerance.

Like others, he quoted one of King’s speeches.

“He said it’s not the angry bigot who has forestalled the kingdom. He said, it’s rather all of the good people who have chosen to do nothing.

“In Orange County today, people are struggling to live free of bigotry, hunger, exposure and hate, and too many people are choosing to do nothing about it,” he concluded.

After the sermons, the congregation and gospel choir sang the civil rights anthem of the 1960s, “We Shall Overcome.”

Noting that King had crusaded to register black voters, Roland Holmes of the Black American Political Assn. of California set up a registration table outside the church.

With him was Sandra Lynch of Orange, who was selling calendars with photos of black male role models in the county and the listing of black contributions to history. Some corporations, she said, refused to fund her project because it did not contain photos of other famous blacks, such as football players.

“Isn’t that what Martin Luther King said? If you accept me only if I’m a football player or Aretha Franklin, how far have we come? We’re still not judged on our character.”

Another participant, Alphonso Moore, a driver for the Orange County Transit District, said he has seen very little progress in civil rights. He said he is often stopped by police in his hometown of Costa Mesa and asked what he is doing in the neighborhood.

Leaders at both services expressed disappointment at the lack of participation by other races in the celebrations.

James Colquitt, president of the Orange County branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, which sponsored a high school service, said: “There are so many people who are still trying to make it exclusively a black holiday. It’s a national holiday and should be treated as such. It bothers us a lot when governmental offices, both city and county, don’t participate.”

La Dawn Moore, 25, of Santa Ana had the same sentiments. “I wish more people from the community can realize that today is not only for blacks, but for Hispanics, Indians, Asians and white people. It’s to celebrate racial equality and justice, something every American can and should appreciate.”

McReynolds said the pastors sponsoring the church service had encouraged people to take a vacation day Monday even if their employers did not give them the day off. “It’s like a quiet protest,” he said.

“Taking this day off and sitting home would be basically disrespectful to Martin Luther King,” said Darrell Lloyd, 36, an Internal Revenue Service manager from El Toro, who spent part of his day off by attending the church service along with his three children.

“I try to teach my children to have pride in themselves and to see what they can do for themselves, as well as those who come behind them,” he said. “I would hope they come to realize the sacrifices others went through so they can have what they have today.”