Southland Offers Many King Day Events

On the eve of what would have been the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s 72nd birthday, Lancaster, a city struggling with its own racial tensions, celebrated the civil rights leader’s legacy Sunday with speeches, essays and a gospel choir.

King’s birthday is a time, Mayor Frank Roberts said, to remember the “clergy and the cleaning women” and all the other Americans who propelled the modern civil rights movement.

With “Live the Vision” as its theme, Sunday was Lancaster’s 12th annual celebration honoring King. About 200 people filled two-thirds of the Lancaster Performing Arts Center.

Ulysses Chatman Jr. has lived in the Antelope Valley since 1968 but grew up in Birmingham, Ala., when King was leading marches throughout the South. Chatman urged the audience to remember King as not just a figure in history.

It is King’s message as contained in his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech that should be remembered and perpetuated, Chatman said.

“Yes, Dr. King was a dreamer. Many people have been dreamers. But we have to be doers,” he said.

Interspersed between songs by a stirring gospel choir were brief remarks by Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley and winning essays from a contest for Lancaster schoolchildren. Third-grader Kameo Allen wrote that King “made the bitter happy, the weak strong and most of all, he tried to make the hostile peaceful.”

The Antelope Valley has in recent years experienced its own racial tensions, in the form of beatings, shootings and cross burnings. The area’s increase in racially motivated violence has paralleled a surge in the population in the region of alfalfa farms and aerospace, with blacks and Latinos leading the influx.

“The hate crimes hurt all of us,” Chatman said after the celebration. Still, he said, the situation in the Antelope Valley is “not as bad as people say.”

With government offices, schools and businesses closed today for the nation’s 16th observance of the King holiday--on the Baptist preacher’s actual birthday--churches and community groups will pause to honor his legacy. A few local observances:

* The city of Inglewood holds an annual parade beginning at 9 a.m. at Inglewood High School and ending at Faithful Central Bible Church.

* The National Cultural Foundation begins its 16th annual Los Angeles Kingdom Day Parade at 11 a.m. at Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards and moves east to Western Avenue.

* The city of West Hollywood’s annual celebration will be at the Wyndham Bel Age hotel featuring Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), followed by a candlelight vigil at 6 p.m. from West Hollywood Park to the Pacific Design Center.

* The Southern Christian Leadership Conference of Greater Los Angeles’ nearly sold-out celebration will include a dinner and an awards ceremony honoring civil rights leaders at the Westin Bonaventure California Ballroom, 404 S. Figueroa St., Los Angeles.

* The San Fernando Valley Interfaith Council’s program, “Making His Dream a Reality in Our Valley,” will feature an interfaith choir, readings from sacred texts and a keynote address by an ethics professor from Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena. The free program begins at 7 p.m. at First United Methodist Church, 4832 Tujunga Ave., North Hollywood.

* The Gospel Hummingbirds will perform their unique blend of gospel, blues and rock music at 6:30 p.m. at the Palmdale Playhouse, 38334 10th St. E. Admission is $12 general, $10 for seniors, students and military personnel, and $8 for children 12 and younger.

* Clergy, congregants and community leaders will gather for Santa Clarita Interfaith Council’s observance at 7 p.m. at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 24443 McBean Parkway, Valencia.