King’s Birthday Marked With Mix of Parades, Speeches and Protests

With fresh racial incidents as a backdrop, millions of people across the nation celebrated Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday on Monday with a mixture of joy over his legacy and anger that racism and poverty still weigh so heavily on American life.

Parades, church services and other gatherings commemorated what would have been the 61st birthday of the murdered civil rights leader, marking the first time the federal holiday has fallen on King’s actual date of birth since it was first celebrated in 1986.

In King’s hometown of Atlanta, an ecumenical service, a parade--the largest in the nation, attracting an estimated 400,000 people, including numerous celebrities--and a “birthday bash” wrapped up 10 days of King birthday activities.

Civil rights activists, led by King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, portrayed the movement led by King as the forerunner of the wave of activism that has dismantled communist systems across Eastern Europe.

“The same song of freedom we sang in the streets of Birmingham, Selma and Little Rock is being sung in cities around the world,” Mrs. King told the ecumenical service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where her slain husband used to deliver powerful sermons and exhortations on civil rights. “The same . . . tactics of nonviolence that we used to break down the walls of segregation are now being used to tear down the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain.”

This year, as in previous years since King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968, the commemoration was grounded in religious ceremony and celebration of King’s leadership of the nonviolent movement during the 1950s and 1960s that exposed the enormity of bigotry and built black pride and aspiration.

But this year King’s birthday coincides with a series of racial incidents in the South and elsewhere that created a climate of anger and apprehension, but also one of determination.

Because the King celebration traditionally serves to spotlight social concerns, and because the first anniversary of President Bush’s Administration is drawing near, numerous speakers Monday heatedly called on the President to fulfill expectations that he would improve the lot of minorities and the poor.

In impassioned speeches, they demanded federal action to combat substandard housing, joblessness and lack of health care.

Newly inaugurated Atlanta Mayor Maynard Jackson, noting that homicide is the No. 1 cause of death for young black men, said: “The children of America are yelling to the President, ‘Save us, save us, lest we perish.’ He has the power to save the children. Even if he doesn’t succeed, he is obligated to try.”

Jackson said: “This, now, is the decade of delivery. This is the decade of the bottom line. No more talk, no more conferences, no more committees, no more commissions, no more consultants--we want action, and we want it now.” The crowd at the ecumenical service roared approval.

The Rev. Joseph Lowery, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who was awarded the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Peace Prize, said “it’s the right thing to ask the President, ‘How long before you begin the journ”

Recent mail bombings in the Southeast, along with anger in Boston, where a white man claimed his pregnant wife had been shot to death by a black man but later became a suspect and apparently killed himself, served as backdrops to the birthday celebration.

The package bombs, which killed a white federal judge in Alabama and a black attorney in Savannah, Ga., are believed to have been sent by a racist individual or group. Bombs also were safely defused here and in Jacksonville, Fla.

Amid threats of further bombings, security was extraordinarily tight for the celebration here. But organizers and participants of the commemoration said they never thought of canceling the events. “We’re not going to be turned around by letter bombs or threats or any kind of violence,” said Mrs. King. “Instead, we’re going forward, with unity and courage and commitment.”

In Boston, some two dozen demonstrators at a King Day breakfast protested aggressive police tactics used during the search for the killer of the pregnant woman and lambasted Mayor Raymond Flynn for leading the hunt for the supposed black killer. Black protesters called for a boycott of the city’s two major newspapers, blaming them for the reports about a black murderer.

Elsewhere, there were expressions of black pride. The recent elections of New York Mayor David N. Dinkins and Virginia Gov. L. Douglas Wilder--both black “firsts,” were celebrated.

“Is it not poetic justice that the first day of Doug Wilder’s stay in office takes place on the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson asked at a prayer breakfast in Washington. Wilder was inaugurated Saturday.

Dinkins, during a speech at a New York church Sunday said: “Dr. King took us to the dawn of a new era. It is up to us to push on into the bright light of day.”

In Philadelphia, the Liberty Bell was rung as part of a worldwide plan to ring bells in celebration of King’s birthday.

In Atlanta, the downtown parade was graced by a balmy afternoon and enlivened by elaborate floats, marching bands and numerous famous faces.

Two students from Tokyo, Michiko Fujimo and Saori Hanida, were enjoying the parade during their first trip to Atlanta. Fujimo said one of her college instructors “told me about Martin Luther King. I heard his speech, and I was impressed. And I cried.”

Rene Jackson of Detroit said: “This is my first time in Atlanta, and I feel great about this celebration. It shows that change is going on and going to continue to go on.”

Ku Klux Klan marchers demonstrated against the King holiday in Atlanta and in Tennessee, vowing to continue their protests as long as the holiday is celebrated.

While the King birthday is a holiday in all federal offices and in most state offices as well, four states do not recognize it: Arizona, Montana, Idaho and New Hampshire.

Times researcher Edith Stanley contributed to this story.

LOCAL OBSERVANCES--Thousands march to honor King, celebrate civil rights. B1