Dream Lives On

Residents across Ventura County gathered Monday to celebrate the birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. and to remind themselves of his message of nonviolent protest against racial oppression.

In downtown Oxnard, more than 300 people assembled at Plaza Park beginning at 8 a.m. for a half-mile march, during which they held hands and sang “We Shall Overcome.”

A mostly African American crowd packed the Second Missionary Baptist Church in Simi Valley to honor King’s dream of equality in a hand-clapping, foot-stomping service.

“We take this day off in remembrance of a great man that came and did a great thing,” congregation member Cathy Page of Ontario said during the opening prayer of the two-hour program. “Let us realize, Lord, that this is not an ordinary day.”

Most at those participating in the 13th annual King Day parade in Oxnard said they braved cool weather and overcast skies to celebrate the strides America has made since the 1960s. Speakers reminded the crowd of a time three to four decades ago when black people in many states couldn’t drink from the same water fountains as whites, black men could be lynched for looking at a white woman, black children attended segregated schools and a seamstress named Rosa Parks made history by refusing to give up her seat on a bus.

This year’s theme for the Oxnard program was “Redefining His Dream.”

But standing before those who remember King and those born after his assassination in 1968, Assemblyman Roderick D. Wright (D-Los Angeles) told the crowd that King’s dream needs no redefinition.

“The dream is fine,” he told the crowd. “The problem is us.”

He referred to King as an American Moses, who led black Americans from “Jim Crow bondage.”

He spoke of how King, in his letter from a Birmingham jail, criticized not just this nation’s bad people, but also the “appalling silence of the good people.” And he noted that King challenged the nation to be the best it could be.

“He was not just a man of words, he was a man of action,” said Wright, adding that such conviction is still needed today.

John Hatcher, president of the Ventura County chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, underscored the importance of this national holiday.

“If you go back into history and look at the struggle of the black man,” he said, “we had to fight just to have the right to vote, to go to school. Now we have all these rights under the law. . . . We are part of the Constitution that left us out for so many years.”

Hatcher, who came to Oxnard in 1964 while in the Air Force, wore overalls for the occasion, saying it was to remind him of his youth in Alabama, when civil rights marchers wore such thick denim outfits because they could better withstand the fire hoses white officials would turn on them, and the teeth of dogs police would sic on them.

But even as Hatcher and others cheered the advances African Americans have made, some residents talked about how much still needs to be overcome.

Dr. William Anderson of Oxnard was in medical school at Howard University in 1963 when King marched on Washington and gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Anderson spoke of the great camaraderie of the civil rights movement in those days, and the euphoria--that things could really change--that swept the nation.

In the early 1960s, many forms of segregation were legal, something you could actively fight against, he said. Now it’s illegal to segregate, but lingering racism is more difficult to fight.

“It’s a passive thing, now . . . but America is still segregated,” he said. “America is so racially divided. Everywhere you go there’s a Chinese area, a black area. You segregate yourself.”

Most of those who marched Monday in the Oxnard parade were black. Some wore clothes of colorful kente cloth. Others carried homemade placards bearing slogans such as “End racist stereotyping” and “Equality for all.”

Tony Cropper held a tiny placard on a tiny stick that read in a large childish scrawl: “Doctor Martin Luther King is the Best in the World.”

He explained that his 6-year-old daughter, Anjelique, made it.

“It’s important that we have our children know their heritage,” he said, “so that they know what it means and can thank those who came before for getting us where we are.”

Thanks to King and others who fought for equality, Cropper said his daughter is able to attend school with children of all races who don’t “shun her because her hair is different.”

It wasn’t just black people who turned out for Monday’s festivities.

“I just felt like I had to be here,” said Susan Pyburn, 56, a self-described activist and writer who is white. “It’s not just a black thing. It’s a heart thing.”

The Oxnard resident said she was at home with her baby watching TV when King marched on Washington, wishing she was there.

“All my adult life I have been in awe of Martin Luther King and what he stood for. It’s always been part of my heart, this movement,” she said.

Gentaro Kameshita, 15, is a Japanese exchange student at Oak Grove-Krishnamurti High School in Ojai. He said he had never heard of King until he recently did a report on the Nobel Peace Prize winner for school. When he heard about the parade, Gentaro decided to come with two friends. By the end of the half-mile walk, he too was singing “We Shall Overcome”--a musical standard of the civil rights struggle.

“We don’t do this kind of stuff in Japan,” he said. “Marching and singing.”

Meanwhile, in Simi Valley, more than 60 people listened intently as adults recalled their experiences with racism and youngsters gave thanks to King and other civil rights activists.

Garinell Davis, 46, remembered the endless racial epithets she encountered during her senior year in an Alabama high school--her class was among the first to be integrated. She said King’s message for equality has, and still does, give her guidance.

“Don’t give anyone the opportunity to hold you back,” she said to the children in the audience. “If you do, you will be held back.”

Splitting up passages of the “I Have a Dream” speech, 20 youngsters recited the words that King is most remembered for. Then they reenacted Rosa Parks’ 1955 arrest in Montgomery, Ala., when she refused to relinquish her seat to a white passenger.

Jermaine Woods, a 10th-grader at Santa Susana High School in Simi Valley, said he can’t comprehend what life was like before the victories of the civil rights movement.

“When I go to school, I have all types of friends,” the 15-year-old said.

“Racism is still here, but as long as we keep doing what we’re doing, this world can be much better.”

MacGregor is a Times staff writer; Hamm is a Times Community News reporter.