King Holiday: A Time for Joy--and Service

Even though Monday was a school holiday, Mercy Blumberg, a Cypress High senior, rose early. She and about 110 of her peers marked Martin Luther King Jr. Day in a chilly Garden Grove warehouse, where they packed cans of fruits, vegetables and meat for the needy.

“Martin Luther King stood for civil rights, nonviolence, service to help his community and to help the world be a better place,” the 18-year-old said. “There are little things we can do to help the world be a better place. That’s why I came out here today.”

The Volunteer Center of Orange County and the Orange County Community Development Council organized the event, billed as “A Day On . . . Not a Day Off!”

King, father of the U.S. civil rights movement, would have turned 72 on Monday. The Nobel Peace Prize recipient was assassinated April 4, 1968, in Tennessee.

Today’s students have studied King in history class but lack the previous generation’s poignant memories of hearing his “I Have a Dream” speech, seeing him lead nonviolent civil rights marches or hearing of his death, several adults said.

“We’re making a connection between this day and Dr. King’s lifetime commitment to community service,” said Mark Lowry, food bank director, between forklift runs to move stacked boxes of food.

Another participant was Donald Smith, president of the Orange County chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha, the African American fraternity to which King belonged in college. “It’s all about volunteering and service and trying to make someone’s life a little better,” Smith said, “which is what Brother King was all about.”

By day’s end, a diverse group of high school and college students and community leaders working in assembly-line fashion had filled 2,320 boxes of food that will be distributed to lower-income seniors and children.

Marina High School senior Kirbi Krisfalusi said: “We’re doing this to kind of bring back what he did through service. It gives me a warm, fuzzy feeling inside.”

Bobby McDonald, president of the Black Chamber of Commerce of Orange County, said he hopes such events will influence the 21 Orange County cities that do not observe the occasion to change their policies. In 1983, Congress and President Ronald Reagan declared King’s birthday a national holiday.

Many Events Mark Holiday for King

In Los Angeles, the 16th Annual Kingdom Day Parade began about 11 a.m. near Crenshaw and Martin Luther King Jr. boulevards and moved east to Western Avenue. Politicians and marching bands were part of the procession, which drew thousands of spectators, as well as vendors selling everything from hot dogs and cotton candy to Silly String.

Others registered voters and passed out signs reading, “Justice Yes! Ashcroft No!” in reference to President-elect George W. Bush’s nomination of former Missouri Sen. John Ashcroft as the attorney general. Ashcroft is a conservative who has been criticized by Democrats for his stance on abortion and civil rights.

The parade was one of several events held in the Los Angeles area in honor of King’s birthday. Oran’s Pan African Black Facts and Wax Museum unveiled a wax figure of King in Santa Barbara Plaza. There were prayer services at several churches, and in Pasadena there was a special video presentation of the “Freedom March,” followed by music and dance. The conservative Brotherhood Organization of a New Destiny, meanwhile, held the second annual National Day of Repudiation of Jesse Jackson.

Elsewhere in Orange County, the local chapter of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People marked the day with a celebration at the Southwest Senior Center in Santa Ana.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D--Garden Grove) said: “We cannot know where we are going until we really assess who we are. I look and see a community that magically continues to dig deep inside to find the strength to stand up, move forward, work through and be proud.”

Keynote speaker Carl H. Boatright of the Matah Network, a national advocacy group, told an enthusiastic group of more than 100: “The total society has been brainwashed to believe that African people have no intrinsic value and have made no significant contributions. . . . We must do what all other races do: We must unite for strength.”

Events are planned elsewhere during the week, including a Wednesday evening symposium at UC Irvine featuring Harvard University professor and author Cornel West.

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Times staff writer Twila Decker contributed to this report.