Activists Want All Americans to Be Touched By King Day : Group pushes community service as a way to give holiday more recognition.

As the nation stands poised to commemorate the ninth annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday, the slain civil rights leader’s widow and other activists are clamoring for broader nationwide recognition of the holiday.

“Today, unfortunately, too many Americans perceive the King holiday as an African American holiday,” said Coretta Scott King, who is chairwoman of the Martin Luther King Jr. Federal Holiday Commission, a federal agency charged with coordinating observance of the holiday. “Our goal is to change this to help them understand that the King holiday is an American holiday.”

As partial evidence that the holiday is getting too little recognition, the commission points to a recent nationwide survey indicating that 67.4% of Americans participated in no events to mark the day. Although the figure was down from 74.5% in 1991, it remains too high, commission members said.

Of those who said they did mark the day in some way, 52% did so by taking the day off, while 12% participated in a church or school function.

The observance was created on Nov. 2, 1983, through legislation signed by then-President Ronald Reagan. It designated the third Monday of every January as a federal holiday honoring King. The commission was created 10 months later to oversee the holiday’s observance nationwide.

King’s widow serves as a lifetime member of the group, which cannot draw more than half of its members from the same political party.

The commissioners include Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry G. Cisneros, Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole (R-Kan.), Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy, former George Bush Administration HUD Secretary Jack Kemp, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) and musician Stevie Wonder.

In recent months, the commission and other groups have planned a series of efforts not only to broaden Americans’ awareness of the holiday, but also to transform it from a largely ceremonial event into an occasion for activism and community service.

The commission and other groups are calling for Americans to remember King by undertaking community service projects and by working to help combat the rising tide of violence among America’s youth.

Community service and nonviolent social change were cornerstones of King’s philosophy, they say, and should become the means by which the day is commemorated.

“We have made great progress with the King holiday, but it is not where it should be, not where we want it to be, and certainly not where it can be,” Coretta Scott King said. “We want the King holiday to become a time for every American to make a contribution, however small, to help alleviate such conditions as hunger, homelessness and illiteracy, to fight drugs, gangs, crime and violence in all forms.”

As in years past, the King Center in Atlanta is working to whip up enthusiasm for the holiday by sponsoring National King Week, which includes an awards ceremony in Washington honoring recipients who have “made significant contributions to the growth, spirit and development” of the holiday, a symposium in Atlanta addressing the problem of youth violence, a parade in Atlanta on Saturday and a commemorative service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta on Monday, at which Coretta Scott King will deliver a “State of the Dream Address.”

This year’s efforts have found a foot soldier in the American Committee to Invigorate the King Holiday, a newly formed group headed by Peter B. Kovler, who also spearheaded widely publicized efforts in 1982 to commemorate the centennial of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s birth.

Kovler says his committee hopes to serve as a resource-and-information clearinghouse for publicizing the holiday.

The commission is also getting a jump start on planning next year’s activities and will hold a national planning conference in Los Angeles from April 19-23.