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.
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.
The 150-seat auditorium classroom was filled to capacity when the group, identified only as "students of FAMU," handed out a one-page statement describing Bush's holiday visit as disrespectful to King's legacy and black students.
The statement contrasted Bush's and King's positions on affirmative action, racism and war and chastised the governor for not restoring voting rights to black voters who were erroneously purged from the rolls before the 2000 presidential election.
Bush, who said he was unaware of the walkout until later, said such demonstrations are "an important element of our free society."
"They have every right to do it. It doesn't bother me a bit," said Bush, who was invited by the school to speak. "I have great admiration for the students here and for their success. "I wanted to make the link that the success of this university could not have occurred without the struggles that Dr. King and many others a generation ago undertook."
