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Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day
Bands, baubles and renewed dreams
Amid the music, marchers, beads and candy, parade watchers talk of hopes for fully realizing the slain civil rights leader's quest for equality.
By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN
Published January 18, 2005
[Times photo: Edmund Fountain]
"I feel great for him," says Ana Lopez, 11, of Tampa about Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as she stands on the Christ of Calvary Community Church float while waiting for the Martin Luther King Day parade to make its way through Tampa. "I'm happy," she said. "I've never been on a float."
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TAMPA - They held their dreams in their arms and on their laps, on their shoulders and in strollers.
Like the slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., moms and dads in Tampa had dreams of their own, dreams for their children that they believed could be achieved in the shadows of King's legacy.
Thousands lined the streets of Tampa with their children Monday to catch a noon parade honoring King. They caught beads and candy, but also reflected on the day.
"The whole thing is about freedom and unity and brotherhood," said Noredine Azzi as he watched his 3-year-old daughter Malika dance around an orange construction cone. She enjoys parades, he said, but she's too young to understand this parade's significance - yet.
"My dream for her is to grow up and be successful in life without prejudice," said Azzi, originally from Algeria.
King, who was assassinated in 1968 at age 39, died fighting inequality and bigotry. He would have turned 76 Saturday. Throughout the country, Americans took to the streets to honor his birth Monday.
In St. Petersburg, a three-hour parade down Central Avenue pulsed with drumbeats and brass, courtesy of Florida A&M University's celebrated Marching 100 band. In Orlando, Gov. Jeb Bush touted education reforms at an MLK Day luncheon.
And in Tampa, 2,500 participants tossed beads and candy from cars and floats, from horseback and on foot along a route that began at Blake High School and ended at Pepin/Rood Stadium at the University of Tampa.
Tampa police estimated that 15,000 spectators lined the streets. They cheered wildly when Armwood High School's football team, which captured the state championship this year, strolled by.
They screamed for beads and candy. The little ones covered their ears when a group of motorcyclists revved their engines.
The caravan included fire engines and emergency vehicles and high school bands from Gainesville, South Carolina and Orlando. The Blake High School marching band was a crowd favorite, drawing proud parents with camcorders and cameras.
Also this year, two community bands from Jamaica participated.
At W Cypress Street and Willow Avenue, beads soared in the air and children danced along the closed streets.
Even the Tampa policeman assigned to keep the crowd behind a barricade at this street corner was popular. Each time a wayward bauble didn't make it into the crowd, the kids shrieked, "Officer! Officer!"
The parade was punctuated with reminders of why they were all there. A group of teenagers marched with a large black and white banner bearing two sketches of Mayor Pam Iorio's face and the message: "Happy Birthday Dr. Martin Luther King."
Eight-year-old Chanise Thomas explained: "Martin Luther King had a dream for people to be equal."
Her mother, Rene Thomas of Tampa, took the day off work so Chanise and her twin, Latrise, could take in the festivities.
"We still have a long way to go with the country coming together," Thomas said. "But events like this show you have some type of unity in the country."
She has dreams for her girls.
"I want them to grow up in a world where they wil be treated fairly and to just be productive citizens," she said.
Nearby, Keisha Brooks said she was happy that despite the fact that more than three decades have passed since King's death, her daughter's generation is familiar with his achievements and influence on American history.
"The parade reminds us of who Martin Luther King was and what he stood for," Brooks said. "It shows us his dream is still living on."
Her daughter, Taylor, 7, said she has learned a lot about King in school.
"He was a nice guy," she said, as strands of purple, green and silver beads around her neck shimmered in the brilliant sun. "Black children went to one school and white children went to one school. He said, "I have a dream that everybody will come together."'
Brooks' dream for her daughter?
"She can grow up and go to college and hopefully have dreams of her own."
--Times staff writer Curtis Krueger contributed to this report.
[Last modified January 18, 2005, 07:15:33]
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