A Dream Lives On : Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday Draws Thousands to Celebrate, Call for His Struggle to Continue

For Carol Carothers, commemorating the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday was more than a time to remember the slain civil rights activist. It was a call to action.

“We must be a part of the continued struggle for racial justice,” said Carothers, of Westminster. “It’s necessary for our survival as a race, as a nation, as a world.”

Carothers was among thousands who attended special ceremonies and celebrations throughout Orange County in honor of the man who struggled to bring the country together during the civil rights movement of the 1950s and ‘60s when racial tensions were at a peak.

Carothers and her 12-year-old grandson joined a crowd of 400 gathered at a National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People-sponsored celebration at Valley High School in Santa Ana. Across town, about 700 people filled the pews at the Second Baptist Church. Scores of others met at luncheons at Saddleback College in Mission Viejo and Tippins Restaurant in Santa Ana.

A clear message permeated each of the gatherings.

“We have to spend more time putting Dr. King’s principles into operation,” said Thomas A. Parham, a counseling director at UC Irvine and keynote speaker at the Valley High School event.

Parham said King should be recognized as “a hero for all Americans.”

As he spoke, members of the local chapter of the NAACP registered new voters and gathered more than 100 signatures on a petition seeking a statewide ballot initiative to make affirmative action part of the California Constitution.

Lee Haggerty, a political science and history professor at Saddleback College, said King’s birthday provides people with an opportunity to discuss issues of diversity and how it affects their communities.

“We want to focus on King’s dream and how to implement parts of the dream to make it reality,” he said.

The jubilant crowd at Second Baptist Church celebrated against a backdrop of throbbing music and fiery speakers. The three-hour celebration combined song and sermon while addressing many of the political and social issues of the day.

Senior Second Baptist pastor John McReynolds urged parents to “take control of your house. . . . When torrents of racism will bring you to anger, hold on to the dream.”

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Other community leaders urged people to embrace King’s message of hope and take action to make it real.

“If Martin Luther King was alive today, I think he would be giving one of his famous speeches, because there’s still a lot of people who don’t like other people and that needs to stop,” said Richard Patray, 10, who was part of the Boy Scout color guard who opened the ceremony at Valley High.

The school’s celebration included skits and musical performances by local elementary school students and the Johnson Chapel AME Church Choir from Santa Ana. College student Jessica Morales recited an original poem about racism and about a dozen other speakers read excerpts from King’s 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.

Members of the audience joined hands and sang “We Shall Overcome,” swaying to the music.

“If I could meet Martin Luther King, I would say, ‘Thank you for all the things you fought for,’ ” said 10-year-old Edward Varnie, of Anaheim. “He was a great man.”

King, born Jan. 15, 1929, won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work, in which he advocated nonviolence to reach racial equality. He was assassinated in 1968.

“Martin Luther King respected other people’s feelings and he stood up for everybody’s rights,” said 10-year-old Connie Minor, of Santa Ana. “He was a nice man who had a dream and his dream can come true if people stop hating each other.”

Times correspondents Jeff Kass and Kimberly Brower contributed to this report.