Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
By MOLLY MOORHEAD, Times Staff WriterThe son of a Zephyrhills council member walks the picket line for King Avenue and gains insights into racism.
ZEPHYRHILLS - On a typical weekday, Nick Graham passes the afternoon playing video games or glancing at his geometry homework.
Sometimes he gets a ride to the YMCA from his sister, who is 16 and has her own car.
But the past two weeks have been anything but typical in Zephyrhills: television trucks parked at City Hall, clusters of protesters waving signs at major intersections, residents sparring on the Internet and face to face over a single, polarizing issue.
Standing on the front line of the debate over the naming of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue back to Sixth Avenue is Nick, a 14-year-old high school freshman and son of a City Council member.
Nearly every day for the past two weeks, Nick has joined a loosely knit group of people protesting the council's April 26 decision to restore the original street name. Although procedural objections led to the 3-2 vote, many in the community see the issue as a racial one.
So does Nick, an honors student and member of JROTC.
"I've never seen an issue as important as this," he said in his mild way that belies the firmness of his convictions.
"The people that are against it (are citing) false reasons - in their heart they're racist," he said. "They teach that to their kids. If they do that, we'll have another whole generation of this."
Nick's mom, Celia Graham, is a first-term council member who consistently supported naming the street for the slain civil rights leader. But Nick, whose brown hair spikes a little on top, insists he took his stand long before his mother raised a hand to vote.
There's no doubt he has found his cause.
Standing at the corner of U.S. 301 and Fifth Avenue, Nick holds a sign that reads "King vs. King. One giveth, the other taketh away." It's a reference to his mom's colleague, council member Gina King, who moved to restore the name to Sixth Avenue.
At Zephyrhills High School, he encourages his friends to join the picket line. Some kids are encouraging, telling him to keep it up, that he's doing the right thing. Others, clearly, disagree.
Nick described a recent encounter with another kid at school.
"He asked me straight out what color was I, because he saw me out there for what he thought was a black issue," said Nick, who asked the boy what he meant and then replied he was white. The other student then walked away.
Last week, he took his spot at U.S. 301 and Fifth Avenue with Denae Roberts, whom he knows from P.E. class.
She had come with her father, who was picketing down the street. Nick and Denae, 15, talked about why they think Zephyrhills needs a street named for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
So, what has Nick learned from standing up every day with a group of mostly African-American residents, many of them decades his senior?
"How black people feel when it comes to racism. Really, it does hurt," he said.
Irene Dobson, the black woman who first asked the city last fall to rename Sixth for King, said she thinks it's important for children today, like Nick, to be involved.
"This will grow up in him - that he was out here with the black folks, how he was treated, the love that we showed him," Dobson said.
Gregg Hilferding, a 24-year-old Army reservist who works at his family's downtown business, jumped into the street name battle by launching a Web site in favor of the King name.
He said that for his generation, the issue is a simple one.
"I think that people that grow up today and in the last 15 years, because they were not necessarily part of the huge struggle for civil rights in the '60s, to them the decision has already been made: Racism is not the way to be, and it's not the way to live your life," Hilferding said. "For most younger people, it's real straightforward."
Nick's only knowledge of the civil rights era is from grade-school history lessons. He can name Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., but he says he doesn't know as much about the era as he would like.
Protesting these past two weeks, he said, has taught him about what people in the 1960s were trying to do.
"It makes you feel like you're helping them, and you're also helping yourself," he said. "It makes you realize what they went through in their fight."
On a white supremacist Web site with a section devoted to the Zephyrhills street issue, several postings declare outright hatred of African-Americans and say King is undeserving of civic honors.
Nick created a screen name - YouRallBad - to counter what he read. His comment, which hasn't been posted on the site, reads in part:
"I am lost in your hatred and racism. I am 14 years old and those of you with children my age and younger need to really think about the values that you are teaching your kids. Just remember that you guide them, and right now you are filling their minds with hate."
The lesson for children is foremost on Nick's mind, who wants to be an Air Force pilot someday, and have kids of his own.
As a 14-year-old protester, he's thinking now about his future.
"If you do this now, it won't be so much of an issue when you're older. You know what to do to stand up to it."
- Molly Moorhead covers news about east Pasco cities. She can be reached at 352 521-6521 or toll-free 1-800-333-7505, ext. 6521. Her e-mail address is moorhead@sptimes.com