At King memorial, LIers ponder his vision

Lakeview teacher Sherwyn Besson saw Sunday's dedication of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. memorial as a moment to remember not just the slain civil rights leader, but also what he represents.

"It's a great opportunity to pay homage to a great man who had an impact not only on black America, but on all Americans," Besson, 43, said. "It's also a chance to connect to the values of the civil rights movement -- resilience, brotherhood, determination, self-reliance. If we're to change the trajectory of the black community, we have to re-connect with those values."

Besson was one of nearly 60 Long Island residents traveling by bus to the dedication of the National Mall's only memorial to a black leader.

"It means a lot to me," said Doris Hicks, also of Lakeview and a teacher in the Malverne school district. "It's a way of saying 'thank you' to a man who did so much for all of us."

King, who was assassinated in 1968, visited Long Island several times in the 1960s. He urged Hofstra students to challenge injustice, spoke against housing discrimination and, during a 1965 trip to Lakeview, called for educational equality in the Malverne school district.

Bea Bayley, an accountant who serves as president of the Lakeview branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, sees King's work as ongoing. While the black middle class has grown and the nation has elected an African-American president, Bayley said her civil rights workload remains busy.

At a Malverne school board meeting last month, she urged officials to reverse hiring trends that have left the district with far fewer black teachers than it had a generation ago. "As a mother and a grandmother, I thought by this time in history we would be over this," said Bayley, 53, sitting during the ceremony about 200 yards from the King monument. "And we're not."

SEE PHOTOS11 photos of Martin Luther King Jr.'s visits to Long Island

The 30-foot-tall sculpture depicts King as standing, arms crossed, appearing to emerge from the rock face of a mountain. The artwork was inspired by the "I Have A Dream" speech King delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, a few hundred yards from where the monument stands today, during the 1963 March on Washington.

Dwight Singleton, a Bridgehampton educator who flew to Washington Friday to visit the monument, said its massive scale hinted at King's outsized impact on American society.

"I had a feeling of nostalgia, of reliving history," Singleton said of being at the memorial, "of being part of the movement."