By JOSEPH KELLARD
“We have overcome,” chanted a band of marchers who took to Long Beach’s streets on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, as they do each year, but this time they were marching 24 hours before Barack Obama was inaugurated America’s 44th and first black president.
Before, during and after the national holiday and the historic inauguration, the city’s black community was abuzz with events evoking high hopes for the country’s future.
On Monday, marchers waved small American flags as they weaved through the snowy, slushy streets of North Park, the city’s dominantly black neighborhood, to the Martin Luther King Jr. Center at Riverside Boulevard, where they celebrated what would have been King’s 80th birthday. Along the route, they passed a few lawns still dotted with Obama/Biden placards as an overcast sky threatened more snow.
“We didn’t let the snow stop us, because Dr. King didn’t let the dog bites and the 100-pound pressure of water hoses stop him,” said Myrnissa Stone, the center’s executive director. “So we cannot let some beautiful snow stop us on a day like today.”
Before hundreds in the MLK’s gymnasium, Stone, Sandra Patrick, a former chairwoman of the center, Michelle Hall, a local gospel radio personality, and other speakers all offered words that exuded excitement about an Obama presidency that they see as a turning point in America. “This year we’re looking at the fulfillment of the dream,” Hall said, standing near an oversized photo of a contemplative King, as several people stood and cheered.
Not wanting the pending inauguration to overshadow the holiday, Stone noted that the center holds its annual MLK Day march and ceremony to remind people — especially young people — what King endured in his fight for civil rights for blacks. Elementary students read poems about King featuring words that rhymed with “dream,” and Mike Pariti, a member of the sanctuary choir at the Christian Light Baptist Church in North Park, performed “Make Us One New Man,” his song about racial segregation and its resolution.
The event grew loudest when guest speaker Mark Beavers, pastor of the Soul Stirring Church of God in Christ in Island Park, gave a energetic speech centered on parental responsibility and raising respectable, responsible children.
When City Council member Lenny Remo took the microphone, he repeatedly encouraged children to talk to their elders, “who for 50 years or longer had struggled to achieve what’s about to become a reality tomorrow,” so they don’t have to face the same hardships and roadblocks.
“The important lesson that tomorrow is going to bring for all of us,” Remo said about the inauguration, “... is that with hard work, a good attitude and perseverance, there is nothing in this country that you cannot accomplish. There is no position you may not aspire to, no goal you may not achieve, and there is nothing to keep you down. You have it within your own control to create your destiny and to continue to make this a magnificent and wonderful country.”
The next day, Ty Grillo and Elizabeth Blackman joined some 30 others to watch live streaming video of the inauguration on a large screen at the Long Beach Library. And right after Obama was sworn into office, Grillo jumped for joy, broke down in tears and gave Blackman, her friend, a long hug.
“All my tears were for all the millions who died sacrificing their lives for freedom,” said Grillo, 35. “They sacrificed their lives for this day.”
A mother and a student at York College, Grillo said she enjoys watching historical documentaries, particularly on black history, and mentioned abolitionist John Brown and Thurgood Marshall as among those who “fought for this day.”
Blackman, 44, who came to America 25 years ago from Guinea “for a better life,” she said, called Tuesday a “God-given day,” and both women said that the part of Obama’s address that moved them the most was his call for national unity.
“He’s going to do whatever it takes in government to enable everybody to have a better life,” Grillo added. “That gives me hope and inspiration. I want to help and do what I can do, whatever it is, to just change ourselves.”
Blackman, who worked in insurance before she was laid off eight months ago, expects the economy to improve under the new administration. “I’m very hopeful that something is going to happen,” she said.
Another spectator, Ann Cunningham, said she supported Obama over Hillary Clinton the moment he kicked off his campaign, which she eventually joined. “I thought he had a good heart, he’s a brilliant man and an inspirational person,” Cunningham said, explaining that she became a Democratic committeewoman in 1972, inspired by Allard K. Lowenstein, the late congressman who represented Long Beach.
On Saturday, as a prelude to the holiday and the inauguration, the MLK Center held its annual awards dinner, and talk of what was coming peppered the speeches of some of the honorees. Among them was Larry Elovich, chairman of the city’s Chamber of Commerce and Long Beach’s former Democratic leader. After he accepted the community service award, he noted that it wasn’t too long ago that blacks were without the right to vote.
“Look now how the world has changed,” Elovich told the crowd of 200-plus. “On Tuesday, one of the greatest things ever to happen to this country will occur: Barack Obama will become president. Without Dr. King’s march on Washington, this would have never happened.”
John Cameron, recipient of the businessperson of the year award, struck a unifying note. “Whatever your politics, whoever you voted for, the election of Barack Obama is something all of us should be proud of,” Cameron said. “... We told the rest of the world that we’re putting race behind us.”
Comments about this story? JKellard@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 213.
