Marching in MLK's big footsteps in S.F.
San Francisco Chronicle 1/22/2008

After a two-year hiatus, the traditional march commemorating the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. returned to the streets of San Francisco as hundreds of participants braved the cold and rain Monday to hold up signs and chant in honor of the slain civil rights leader.

"It's very symbolic to have the march to keep the dream alive and just to be in tune with what Dr. King did," said Magi Taylor, an artist from Berkeley, who has attended the event for more than a decade.

The march kicked off at the Caltrain station at Fourth and Townsend streets, where the specially chartered annual Freedom Train brought passengers from San Jose and the Peninsula. Organizers said tickets for the train, which holds 1,600 passengers, were sold out.

"It was a lot more emotional than I thought it was going to be," said Patricia Brown, who boarded the train in San Mateo. "Just thinking about what my parents were denied for many years. Because of the civil rights (movement), I was able to go to college, and now for my daughter going to college was just a matter of applying."

King, who was assassinated in April 1968, would have turned 79 on Jan. 15th. Martin Luther King Jr. Day is celebrated on the third Monday in January. For the past two years, the San Francisco march has been canceled, but other events have commemorated the holiday.

"He kept marching. It did not happen just once. He kept coming back, and that's what I remember to be so inspirational," said Hank Wilson, a former elementary school teacher from San Francisco. "We need Martin Luther King right now to bring people together."

The event drew various political and civic groups, including supporters of Sen. Barack Obama who said that the first African American to have a reasonable chance of being nominated by a major party could have the same legacy.

"Other candidates are telling people what they want to hear, and Obama is talking from his heart," said Kathyrn Ruggiero from Oakland, who was holding a handmade sign that read "Obama is the dream realized."

"Obama could not exist without King," she added.

Rick Riemedio with the United Playaz, an anti-violence and gang prevention program, brought about 50 high school students, who were waiting to join the march at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts.

The students "need to understand that there are people who try to promote peace for our country," Riemedio said. "And sometimes when we step forward to promote peace, it's not safe, but it's worth taking the risk."

The march was organized by the Northern California Martin Luther King Jr. Birthday Observance Committee, founded by the Rev. Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church.

It wound up at Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, where participants held a daylong rally, teach-in and vendor fair.

One of the vendors, designer Greg Barnes, said his T-shirts bearing the slogans "Eracism" and "I may trip, fall or even be knocked out, but I will always stand for what's right" have been top sellers at the event.

"Eracism does exactly what it says, eliminating racism, by making people talk to one another about this so-called sensitive issue," Barnes said. "The basic philosophy is that the more we know one another, the more we can trust one another; and when there is more trust, there is less fear and less hate."

Other events in the Bay Area Monday included a dedication of King Plaza in Palo Alto; a work party in Alameda, where volunteers with the Student Conservation Association helped expand the community garden; a day of community service in Richmond; and an event sponsored by the Oakland African American Chamber of Commerce at the ACTS Full Gospel Church.

-- See a video of the Freedom Train arrival in San Francisco and the march to Civic Center in celebration of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday by visiting SFGate.com.