1,000 Gather to Honor King : Audiences Urged to Continue Battle Against Prejudice

Nearly 1,000 Orange County residents gathered in a pair of stirring celebrations Monday, honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. more than 25 years after he delivered one of the most lasting and treasured orations of the civil rights movement.

Monday’s celebrations--marking the week including what would have been the 63rd birthday of the slain civil rights leader--mixed tributes to King with calls for continued efforts to battle prejudice and discrimination.

“What happened to the dream?” the Rev. John Nix-McReynolds asked in his address to 600 people at the Second Baptist Church of Santa Ana, where listeners overflowed the church and its alcove, spilling outside and straining to hear the program. In 1963, when King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech, “our society didn’t want to dream. The dream demanded a change,” McReynolds said.

Now, McReynolds added: “The day has come for this dream to become our dream and not just Martin’s.”

Until that happens, McReynolds and other speakers warned, people will still be judged by the color of their skins--not merely, as King urged during the March on Washington, by the content of their character.

Dr. Thomas Parham, director of Career Guidance Center at UC Irvine, reminded the audience that King not only believed in nonviolence but in active resistance.

“Proper recognition to his memory is to stop worshiping a personality and start operating with his principles in daily life,” Parham said. “We must actively resist anything that dehumanizes women and men.”

Members of the audience cheered loudly as speakers denounced black-on-black crime, racial attacks and other symptoms of racial tension. McReynolds said those persistent issues are evidence that King’s dream is yet to be realized.

Tributes were also delivered by Santa Ana City Councilman Robert L. Richardson, the Rev. Robert Shepherd of the National Conference of Christians and Jews, and UC Irvine psychologist Dr. Lavada Austin.

Two blocks away at Carr Intermediate School, the crowd was smaller and more subdued. About 300 people attended that celebration, sponsored by the Orange County branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. The commemoration at the school mostly took the form of musical tributes and dramatic readings by students.

Choirs from Lathrop Intermediate School, Valley High School and UCI were among the performers.

Megan McGlover, 14, of Corona Hills received a standing ovation for her dramatic reading of the “I Have a Dream” speech. Outside the school, she said she has been memorizing King speeches and writings since she was 6 or 7 years old.

“My mother realized I had a good memory. I started with the ‘Letter From Birmingham Jail,’ ” she said.

Her mother, Glenda McGlover, said she urged her daughter to study King’s work because she thinks that “it’s important we remember his effort. . . . It’s important that young people know this. It is something that has to be remembered.”

Like the audience at the Second Baptist Church tribute, the one at the school program was dominated by African-Americans, with few others in attendance. That troubled some participants.

“Americans must accept that Martin Luther King is an American hero, rather than a black hero,” said James Colquitt, president of the Orange County branch of the NAACP.

Colquitt noted that the post office, banks, schools and most city governments were closed Monday. And yet, he added, “wherever you go, it’s still perceived as a black holiday.”

Rusty Kennedy, executive director of the Orange County Human Relations Commission, was one of the few whites in attendance at Second Baptist.

“King’s message is one of unity and bringing people together,” Kennedy said. “I think it is really important for Orange County to look at the message of judging people by the content of their character.”

Race relations could benefit in Orange County if more people acted according to King’s ideals, Kennedy said.

“Every person should use every institution, whether it’s the Lions Club, school or business to build understanding between people that promotes the ideas of Dr. King,” he said.

Many of those at Monday’s ceremonies agreed. And for some, the festivities offered a chance to expose a new generation to King’s teaching.

Christa Lawson, for instance, brought several students from a local day-care center so they could hear the speeches.

“He was a great man,” said Lawson, 22. “He had a lot to say. He was pushing for everyone to love, to get along. You don’t have to believe, you need an understanding. If people worked at it, there wouldn’t be so much violence.”