LI event kicks off King monument unveiling
Civil rights attorney Frederick Brewington speaking to a small crowd who came out to the reception in honor of Sunday's dedication of the Martin Luther King memorial in Washington, D.C. (Oct. 14, 2011) Credit: Newsday/J. Conrad Williams Jr.
Some of Long Island's Civil Rights and African-American leaders honored the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Friday, during a celebration in Hempstead Village, in a march-up to Sunday's planned unveiling of the late preacher's monument in Washington.
More than 100 people attended the local kickoff reception to the dedication scheduled at the National Mall. Among the crowd inside Antioch Baptist Church were government officials, administrators and church leaders, who recognized King's civil rights agenda.
"We are talking about a man who we should talk about all the time," said Frederick K. Brewington, a civil rights attorney from Hempstead, whose words drew a standing ovation.
King was an iconic civil rights leader best known for his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech in Washington and for his work to end racial segregation and discrimination through nonviolence. King, who at age 35 became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, was assassinated in 1968.
"Dr. King gave his life for the cause of justice," said Bishop Frank O. White, president of the Nassau County Council of Clergy, who at age 23 met King at a church in Freeport. "How many of us would be willing to do that?"
The Rev. Phillip Elliott, Nassau deputy county executive for minority affairs, asked audience members who lived during the civil rights era to rise. Half the crowd stood.
"Many of us lived through those marches and sit-ins," said Elliot, who was born in Virginia. "Indeed, many of us were part of that legacy. We are modern historians."
In her keynote address, Garden City-based civil rights attorney Sara Wyn Kane encouraged attendees to continue King's work.
"Since Dr. King, we have an African-American president, but Dr. King's dream hasn't been realized," said Kane, whose parents marched in rights protests in the '60s. "We still have a lot of work to do."
Many of Friday's attendees plan to join those riding to the nation's capital for the unveiling of the 4-acre memorial.
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