A message for the world
Annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration focuses on racism, rights in U.S. and abroad

By NATHAN HALVERSON
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

Published: Monday, January 19, 2009 at 4:22 a.m.
Last Modified: Monday, January 19, 2009 at 6:02 a.m.

(caption for attached photo)
Avesta Sabetian,17, of Maria Carrillo High School, winner in the high school oratory category, delivers his speech Sunday at the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration at the Wells Fargo Center in Santa Rosa.
MARK ARONOFF / The Press Democrat


Rev. James Coffee helped set a national precedent 32 years ago when he organized a celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday in Sonoma County -- more than a decade before the third Monday of every January became a recognized U.S. holiday for the slain civil rights leader.

Rev. Coffee, longtime pastor at the Community Baptist Church in Santa Rosa, is perhaps again ahead of the curve as he urges people to remember King's legacy not just as a struggle against black oppression, but as a struggle to protect human rights across the world.

"It's not black or white. It's human rights," Coffee said. "We have human issues, and it's worldwide."

Coffee began working with King after inviting the civil rights leader to Oakland in 1956. Now Coffee presides over a three-day celebration of King's legacy that promotes an end to both racism in the United States as well as global racism and oppression.

Sunday night hundreds of people gathered at the Wells Fargo Center in Santa Rosa to pay homage to King's legacy, and heard impassioned speeches delivered by American youth of African, Iranian and Palestinian descent.

"We must live peacefully with one another," said Ali Mansour, a first-generation Palestinian-American who was awarded best speech in the junior high division of Sunday's event.

Mansour, who is in ninth grade at Maria Carrillo High School, stirred the crowd with his speech urging people to follow in King's path and be motivated by what is not necessarily safe, nor necessarily profitable, but what is moral.

"Cowardice asks the question 'Is it safe?' " Mansour said. "Conscience asks the question 'Is it right.' "

Rev. King delivered a similar message during the civil rights movement, urging activists to answer violence with nonviolence, to accept that they might be beaten or killed, and understand that their moral superiority would eventually win out over their "misguided" oppressors. An audio clip of that speech is available online at PressDemocrat.com | The Press Democrat | Santa Rosa, CA.

Mansour's speech came a day after Israel announced a unilateral cease-fire against the Palestinian government of Hamas in a war that has resulted in the deaths of more than 1,000 entrapped Palestinians.

Another world event hung in the air at Sunday night's event: Tomorrow's inauguration of Barack Obama as the first black president of a country founded by slave owners.

Tears welled in Coffee's eyes when asked about the significance of Obama's election, and how far the United States has evolved from the days of his childhood in the South when he was segregated from whites, and barred from eating in white-only cafeterias or attending white-only amusement parks.

"I still feel kind of light and numb," Coffee said, as tears streaked down his face. "It's like a dream."

Both Obama's victory and the legacy of Rev. King inspired the winner of the best speech in the high school division.

Avesta Sabetian is a 17-year-old from Maria Carrillo High School who is of Iranian descent, and is encouraged by Obama's willingness to talk with Iran, and King's vision of empathy and reconciliation. Sabetian sees King's legacy as a roadmap to moral action.

"He stood up for what he believed," Sabetian said. "And he took action."

King was born Jan. 15, 1929. The Noble Peace Prize winner was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968. In 1986, Martin Luther King Day was established as a U.S. holiday.

The keynote speaker at Sunday's event was Sacramento Fire Chief Ray Jones, who grew up in Santa Rosa. Jones urged today's youth to take charge of their lives, because anything is possible.

While Rev. Coffee said today's youth are more interested in the color of money than the color of someone's skin, he said racism is far from dead in the Unites States or worldwide.

That point was driven home by Kahlil Keyes, a student at Casa Grande High School who was also honored for his oratory.

"As an African-American male, there will be pre-judgements placed on me," Keyes said.

In a rousing speech that drove the crowd to their feet in applause, Keyes recounted a story from his youth, when as an 8-year-old child in the passenger seat of his father's new Dodge Ram pickup truck, a police officer pulled the pair over and approached with his gun drawn. Sitting in the front seat next to his father, the young Keyes was pushed to tears as the officer yelled and pointed the gun at his father. The officer holstered his gun when he saw the crying Keyes, and told his father he was looking for someone matching his description before letting the pair go, Keyes said.

"We have not yet reached the dream, when people are judged not by the color of their skin but instead by the quality of their character," Keyes said.


TODAY
What: "A Day On, Not a Day Off" is the theme of the final day of celebration of Rev. King and encourages people to use the national holiday to better themselves and their community. The event focuses on health and well-being, but includes food, amusements for children and career information.
Where: Community Baptist Church, 1620 Sonoma Ave., Santa Rosa
When: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. More info: 546-0744
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You can reach Staff Writer Nathan Halverson at 521-5494 or nathan.halverson

@pressdemocrat.com.