Martin Luther King Jr. Day coverage in today's Times Drawing on art to find the harmony inside us all By MARY JO MELONE Rain clouds were forming overhead, and people were setting up food tables and chairs along the street where the Martin Luther King Jr. parade would later march, when my friend Tony Collins and I entered St. Petersburg's Straub Park. Wake up and spread King's word to children By ERNEST HOOPER Every year, the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs has its annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Breakfast on the King holiday at 6:45 a.m. Breaking bread and barriers By COLLEEN JENKINS A moment to honor a civil rights hero brings together blacks and whites sharing a dream and a meal on a cold and rainy day. Signing up for the dream By TOM ZUCCO As people lined streets to celebrate a champion of equality, volunteers worked the crowd to register them to vote. King's job is still far from done By MOLLY MOORHEAD At a rural church, everyday folks were reminded they need to act on his behalf. Some fear King's message gets lost By MEGAN SCOTT When pressed, some children enjoying festivities and a day off school don't always know who, or why, they are celebrating. Bright hopes under cloudy skies By JARED GOLDBERG-LEOPOLD St. Petersburg's 19th parade shows that residents will turn out to honor King even when the outlook's dreary. Some snub Bush speech at FAMU By Associated Press TALLAHASSEE - About a dozen students walked out Monday before Gov. Jeb Bush gave a Martin Luther King Jr. Day address at historically black Florida A&M University. Pointed calls for peace mark King Day By Associated Press ATLANTA - Americans observed Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday with some activists charging that the war in Iraq runs counter to what the civil rights leader stood for.
Every year, the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs has its annual Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Leadership Breakfast on the King holiday at 6:45 a.m.
After 24 years, some still wonder why the breakfast is so early. It's meant to be a symbolic wake-up call to the community. A sign that we can't sleep in if we are serious about addressing the most pressing issues of the day.
Amid a host of fine speakers and presentations, perhaps no one did a better job of waking up the sold-out A La Carte Pavilion crowd of 1,000 than 6-year-old Noah Sheehy.
Looking dapper in a gray suit with a red tie and red pocket handkerchief, Noah stepped on the dais and recited a Nathaniel Hannah poem about King from memory. He was unnerved, undaunted and, as breakfast co-chair Aj Jemison noted, he didn't seem to take a breath.
He placed his hands over his heart and concluded the poem with this memorable line:
We have no fancy presents or expensive gifts to bring,
but you must know in our hearts we thank you, Dr. King.
The audience erupted into a standing ovation, and University of South Florida president Judy Genshaft told Noah and the crowd he has a full scholarship waiting for him whenever he is ready.
Noah will be ready sooner than later. He has been reading since he was 2, and by the time he was 4, he had read more than 20 books. Marie Sheehy, his grandmother, has a Columbia University master's degree and is a retired reading specialist for the Hillsborough County school district.
Mrs. Sheehy has taught all of her grandchildren to read, and while two older grandsons (Joseph and Stephen) have excelled, neither of them has quite matched Noah's progress. The Dunbar Elementary second-grader already is reading at a college level.
"His mother (Ronetta) was the same way," Marie Sheehy said. "She started reading when she was 2. They can both look at something twice and memorize it. I think they look at something, and it becomes a picture to them."
But what makes Noah special is that his apparently high IQ hasn't done anything to take away from his youth. After the breakfast, he greeted Mayor Pam Iorio while holding a stuffed Superman doll.
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There were other moments of inspiration.
Standing ovations also were extended to Middleton High senior DeLaine Wingfield, winner of the TOBA 2003 Orator of the Year contest, and Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce's Gloria Anthony, who received the inaugural Israel "Ike" Tribble Civic Leadership Award.
Genshaft was on hand to announce a scholarship has been endowed in the name of Tribble, who passed away last June.
Michigan Rep. and keynote speaker Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick implored the audience to get involved in the political process because too many people died so we could vote.
"It's you and it's you and it's you who must determine whether if we as a people, God's people, can really live in the legacy of Dr. King and be ordinary people doing extraordinary things," Kilpatrick said.
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Mrs. Sheehy said she had to give Noah a dollar to keep him from falling asleep. I had to promise Matthew and Ethan I would take them to see Lord of the Rings to keep them from putting their heads on the table.
Getting your kids to rise for a 6:45 a.m. gathering is never an easy task, and it's a little more difficult when the breakfast choice is quiche.
Still, I am compelled because sharing Dr. King's legacy with our children is imperative. A Largo incident last week in which a 19-year-old placed a noose around the neck of a 14-year-old black teen illustrates just how important it is. The scars of our racial history must remain visible.
Racial harmony will be more of a reality for my kids and my grandkids, but only if we encourage discussions about where we've been and where we need to go.
