WEEKEND EDITION
January 8 - 9, 2005
Las Vegans young and old say that while there has been much progress in achieving racial equality, there is much more that needs to be done to fulfill the dream of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Next Saturday, in the tradition of the equality marches of the recognized leader of the civil rights movement, they will march to further his goals in the Martin Luther King Jr. Parade starting at 10 a.m. in downtown Las Vegas.
"I don't think Dr. King's dream has come true yet because there is still too much disparity and a need to strive for things that should by now be happening naturally," said Eddie Taylor, King parade chairman and a longtime Las Vegan.
"No question there has been progress. I live in Bonanza Village, where in 1945 a rule was passed prohibiting blacks and Asians from owning property there. I could not have lived there 50 years ago. But that rule and others like it were erased by the Civil Rights Act," for which King fought vigorously.
Former Nevada Assemblyman Wendell Williams, founder and president of the Martin Luther King Jr. Committee, agrees that much more needs to be done to achieve King's dream.
"While Dr. King is viewed primarily as a civil rights leader, from his writings I think it is more correct to say he was a human rights leader who sought world peace," said Williams, who founded the committee in 1981 and put on the first King Day Parade locally in 1982.
Judy Jordahl, principal of Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School at Nellis and Lake Mead boulevards, said she sees in the many essays her fourth and fifth graders write each year on King that they, too, believe "we have work to do."
"Many of them write in their essays that the dream has not yet been completed, and not just for race issues but for society in general," Jordahl said.
This year, about 120 of the school's 640 students have signed up to march in the parade. Wearing matching T-shirts, the group, one of about 130 entries in the parade, will perform a rap honoring King.
Taylor said it makes him proud to see so many children interested in the dream of the man who was assassinated on April 4, 1968, at age 39.
"I will not see the fulfillment of Dr. King's dream in my lifetime," said Taylor, a 59-year-old Rancho High graduate who began his schooling in a segregated Catholic school in Mississippi, where the students were black and the nuns were white.
"But I believe it might occur in my grandchildren's lifetime. At least I hope it will."
About 4,000 people are expected to march or ride on the estimated 40 floats during the parade.
Metro Police crowd estimates of past King Day parades indicate that 15,000 to 25,000 people will attend this year's event. However, the crowd could be larger this year because the parade is tied to the city of Las Vegas' centennial year celebration, Taylor said.
Bleachers will be set up at Fourth Street and Bridger Avenue and the parade will be televised by Cox Communications. Police will begin closing off roads in the area around 7 a.m.
This year's grand marshals are Ramon Savoy, owner of the Las Vegas Sentinel-Voice newspaper, and Hannah Brown of the Urban Chamber of Commerce.
Other local events tied into the Martin Luther King Jr. Day holiday, which will be observed Jan. 17, include an address by Nevada Supreme Court Justice Michael Douglas at 12:15 p.m. on Jan. 21 at UNLV's Moyer Student Union Ballroom.
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