King spoke against racism in 1965 visit to Long Island' new suburban communities

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. trailblazed through Long Island nearly 60 years ago, urging the new suburban communities to end not only racial division but also segregation in schools like those in Malverne.

Current-day civil rights leaders, historians and Long Islanders said King’s visits to the Island broke barriers and breathed power into movements to desegregate schools. They also created the foundation of integrated Black communities in a fight for equality and justice that has not been resolved.

King spoke out against segregation in schools in Malverne and neighboring Lakeview in 1965, at a time when the divided community had been battling the state’s desegregation order in court for two years.

"When you think about school and a free quality public education, how could you get that in a segregated system?" Brookhaven NAACP chapter president and historian Georgette Grier-Key said. "It was important to him and part of his own background and history. He endorsed this fight on Long Island."

King visited Malverne as part of a tour of Long Island to raise support for the civil rights movement, a tour that also included stops in Inwood, Long Beach, Rockville Centre and Hempstead.

"Racial segregation is evil," King said during the Malverne stop. "Whether it is Selma, Alabama; Atlanta, Georgia; or Malverne, Long Island."

The impact of King’s visit still resonates in Malverne, with students working to fade the scars of racism of that era. They are seeking to rename Lindner Place — named after a Ku Klux Klan leader — which runs next to what was formerly known as Lindner Elementary school, where Black students from the Woodfield Road School in Lakeview were first integrated.

"Many people shake their heads wondering how could this still be. The icon of our century was here," Malverne schools Superintendent Lorna Lewis said. "Malverne has made great progress since then and successfully integrated schools. The outcome in Malverne is not dependent on race. And I think Dr. King would be very pleased with what Malverne schools have done for children of all ethnicities."

Hempstead civil rights attorney Frederick K. Brewington said he remembers riding his bicycle to see King as he came down Woodfield Road in Lakeview and King patted his head.

"His presence resonated that there was hope on the horizon and an opportunity for things to be brighter, as we looked for a brighter future to always be better than we are," Brewington said.

"I vividly recall the struggles and the protests and the venom and my first experience with the disease of racism. Myself and my classmates were not welcome and not looked on as being entitled to the same things as other people who went to school were entitled to, and it was my first experience with aspects of human nature."

Brewington said that following King’s assassination in April 1968, his mother was sobbing at the kitchen table and told her son, "They just killed our last best chance."

Brewington and others on Long Island said King’s time here warrants a day of service to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and of spending time focused on how to right racial inequalities.

A series of events are planned for Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year, including an online lecture Sunday through the Freeport Library by Stony Brook Associate Professor Zebulon Vance Miletsky about King’s last visit to Long Island in 1968.

Miletsky said each year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, he recalls the message from King’s 1968 Rockville Centre address, the "tasks yet to be done," and a path toward equality in communities that may still be segregated today.

"It left Long Islanders with an outline for a path to the future and one hopefully when justice can be realized," Miletsky said. "There is a sense of urgency to try to accomplish what King had set out to do, for Long Islanders to address economics and poverty, and it was a road map way forward."

Several marches and days of service are planned Monday across Long Island, including in Long Beach and Hempstead. Hempstead’s parade will start at 9 a.m. from Kennedy Memorial Park, followed by a ceremony at Bethlehem Judea Church.

"When you look at our diverse community and the direction Hempstead is moving in, it reminds us of how important it as a community to embrace diversity and look at people for the content of their character, not the color of their skin," Hempstead Mayor Waylyn Hobbs Jr. said. "That sense of community and unity Dr. King emphasized is so important in Hempstead and the community looking now to push and maintain voter rights.

"It’s what Dr. King sacrificed his life for, and we can never let that dream die."

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.