Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wasn’t a politician or decorated war hero, Sen. Barack Obama told a packed congregation Monday morning at St. Mark Cathedral in Harvey.
Rather, he was a man who changed a nation by first choosing to love his neighbor enough to serve him, Obama said.
“He did what God required,” Obama said. “He loved his neighbor. He loved his enemies.”
“Long before he was a leader of men, he was a servant of God,” he said. “It’s not enough to celebrate once a year.”
The Democratic senator delivered a fiery speech in which he challenged his audience–including elected officials, community leaders and clergy–to live up to King’s legacy if they are to live like “Kings.”
The celebration in the south suburban town was among the many ways Chicago-area residents honored the life of the civil rights icon, who will be the first African-American to have a memorial site on the National Mall in Washington.
Some did community service, toured historic sites and attended concerts and church programs. Many attended lectures where they were reminded of King’s struggle and told to continue the work he started.
Julian Bond, board chairman of the NAACP and a King associate, told a crowd at the University of Chicago that although some claim racism and inequality have been wiped out in the U.S., nothing could be further from the truth.
“Today’s apologists argue that America is colorblind,” he said. “Sadly, in America, equal opportunity is color-coded.”
Activist and comedian Dick Gregory told 700 people gathered in Aurora that the civil rights movement King led transformed American society and opened opportunities for all minority groups.
“This movement came through and the legislation didn’t say `For blacks only,'” he said. “A woman couldn’t be a cop before this movement. … Thanks to us, you are now liberated.”
Monday was the first King Day since the death of his wife, Coretta Scott King.
“It is in her memory and her honor that we must carry this program on,” said her sister-in-law, Christine King Farris, speaking in Atlanta at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached.
The Atlanta History Center also opened the first exhibition of more than 600 of King’s personal documents, including an early draft of his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech.
The King holiday has special meaning in Chicago because of King’s demonstrations in the city in 1966. At the time, King met much resistance and a wave of unfriendly faces in response to an open-housing campaign.
Still, he left his footprints throughout the city: in the North Lawndale community, where he and his wife lived to spotlight poverty and poor housing, and in dozens of churches where he spoke and rallied everyday people for justice.
As a result of his local campaign, many leaders in this region have personal ties to King who work to make his vision a reality.
In Winnetka, a standing-room crowd of about 150 gathered to commemorate, albeit more than a year later, the 40th anniversary of King’s 1965 rally on the North Shore town’s Village Green.
A half-dozen panelists involved in the rally gave a history lesson on not only the rally but also the events leading up to it. Momentum toward fair housing had been growing in the area for years, they said, but King’s speech in front of 10,000 people galvanized activists.
David James was one of the first African-American residents to move into the predominantly white community of Winnetka in the ’60s. He recalled that when he was growing up in Chicago in the 1920s and ’30s, segregation in Chicago was as bad as it was in the suburbs.
“Every race riot in the city of Chicago was about housing,” James said. “There’s always been this tension.”
Bennett Johnson, former head of the NAACP’s Evanston chapter, said progress in housing integration is being made, even if it is coming more slowly than people would like.
“The level of tension and alienation is there,” he said, “but it’s less. Dr. King’s dream is being realized.”
Obama delivered his King Day message in the gritty suburb of Harvey, where many families are economically deprived.
Obama told them that King was not a rich man or a celebrity and that they too can inspire change and improve their community.
“I am reminded that it’s people like King who made it possible for other African-Americans to go on and make history,” said Ethel Taylor, 48, of Chicago Heights, who said she was inspired by Obama’s speech. “I can’t forget whose shoulders I stand on. Today, I feel a lot of hope.”
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lbowean@tribune.com
