TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — In Tucson, people gathered at Reid Park Monday to honor civil rights leader Martin Luther King. Some of them worried the rights he worked to secure are in jeopardy.
The Martin Luther King Junior celebration is a celebration of his birthday and a time to look at the past, look at the present and look at the future; and we asked some of the people, what would the world of today look like to Doctor King?
A march around the edge of Reid Park was a tribute to the many marches Doctor Martin Luther King led to secure civil rights.
Willie Blake says as a teenager he marched with Doctor King in support of the Little Rock Nine—nine students trying to integrate Little Rock’s Central High School. He says if his parents had known they would have worried.
“You’re risking your life and being beat up, and I've seen the law officers sic dogs on the old women's tearing meat out of their thighs, you know what I'm saying, and that was what was crazy for me. We just wanted to be, just be a human. Wanted to be a man or woman. We wasn't allowed to at that time.”
Now the civil rights movement Doctor King drove, has won many of the rights he dreamed of.
Sugar Hill is a traditionally black community in Tucson. We asked Kevin Woodard of the Sugar Hill Coalition how the world of today would look to Martin Luther King.
“He would look at it and he would be sad, because of the things going on in the world right now. He wouldn’t understand it. All the things that he fought for are going right out the door.”
But he says people are energized and ready to fight for their rights.
Pastor Grady Scott of Grace Temple Baptist Church says there is still power in Doctor King’s message that there is more that brings us together than splits us apart.
“There are a lot of things we can do together as a people if we would just come together. Talk it out. Talk to each other instead of at each other. Listen to one another, don’t go into our camps. Sit down, rationalize, this is your story, I tell you mine, and in that we may find we have similar experiences.”
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Craig Smith is a reporter for KGUN 9. With more than 40 years of reporting in cities like Tampa, Houston and Austin, Craig has covered more than 40 Space Shuttle launches and covered historic hurricanes like Katrina, Ivan, Andrew and Hugo. Share your story ideas and important issues with Craig by emailing craig.smith@kgun9.com or by connecting on Facebook and Twitter.
