Messages of Unity and Optimism Underscore Kwanzaa Festival

In his 62 years, Robert Guy has seen it all.

There was the lynching of a black soldier that he witnessed as a boy in Waynesboro, Miss., in 1943. The fledgling civil rights movement of the 1950s, followed by the Watts riots of 1965. And then the Los Angeles riots of 1992.

Saturday, the disabled truck driver was standing at Martin Luther King Jr. and Crenshaw boulevards. In his pocket he was carrying a faded, 31-year-old snapshot of him shaking the Rev. King’s hand. In his heart, Guy was looking into the future.

“The new year has to be better,” he said. “I’m quite optimistic for 1993. I’m hoping for the best.”

Guy was among thousands lining Crenshaw at midday to watch South Los Angeles’ annual Kwanzaa parade, part of an African-themed festival that celebrates family values and racial harmony.

Inside the nearby Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza shopping mall, actress Marla Gibbs struck a match to open the seven-day event with a candle-lighting ceremony. She struck a responsive chord in a day-after-Christmas crowd of about 100 when she explained that this year’s theme is unity.

She suggested that blacks have the power to begin turning things around by investing in their neighborhoods both economically and emotionally.

“Stop asking what Clinton is going to do,” Gibbs said. “Because if we don’t do nothing, he can’t do nothing. We need to put our money where our mouths are.

“We have to start looking forward. We have to take responsibility for our community and become mothers and fathers of every child in that community,” including young gang members, she said. “Give them some hugs and kissing, knock them down if you have to.”

As a colorfully costumed court of Kwanzaa “royalty” listened, festival organizer Melva Joyce Parhams blamed slavery for helping obscure African-American families’ heritages.

Added Craig Sasser, executive director of the Crenshaw Chamber of Commerce: “To be pro-black is not to be anti-white or anti-Latino” but is a way “to connect ourselves to our roots.”

The hourlong parade featured a cross section of African-American culture.

There were gown-clad women individualistically dancing to the rhythmic pounding of drums. Behind them were modern precision drill teams, stepping in unison to an altogether different beat.

The Flying Souls, which calls itself the world’s first black trapeze team, marched with members of a black karate club.

The ceremonial king and queen of the festival, lawyer Legrand H. Clegg II and community activist Adwoa Nyamekye, traveled in a limousine. Both spoke of the past--and the future.

“I’m dressed as a pharaoh,” Clegg explained. “If the ancient Egyptians invented writing and math, there’s no reason our children can’t be taught to read and add.”

Said Nyamekye of the need for blacks to invest in their community: “This is not about rebuilding L.A. It’s about establishing .”

Behind them were members of a Volkswagen car club called South-Central V-Dubs. Farther back were 25 rope-spinning black cowboys astride high-spirited horses.

Back at the corner of King and Crenshaw, Robert Guy was taking his own steps to improve the economy by selling 50-cent red, black and green ribbons to parade watchers. They represent the blood, the people and the ecology of Africa, he explained.

Guy sold a pair to Delois Fort, who pinned one to the shirt of her 5-year-old daughter, Jahmese.

Fort pinned the other one on herself. On the back of her shirt, she had her own Kwanzaa message.

“Focus on the positive,” read the writing in big letters.