Words for a new dream

Youths are the focus of a King event, but age-old memories also play a part.

By JOEL ANDERSON, Times Staff Writer
Published January 22, 2008

Ma-Anna Harris, 14, of Spring Hill, plays the violin during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration at Kennedy Park in Brooksville. Audio slideshow: Reaching the dream
	[Maurice Rivenbark | Times]

BROOKSVILLE - For Arthur Gittens, the memories of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. go beyond those grainy black-and-white images of a stoic civil rights leader pressing for social change from pulpits and podiums across the country.

Gittens, who met King in 1963 during one of King's speeches to a black teachers' union in New York, remembers a playful, gregarious and congenial man who liked to crack jokes and dance. It's one of the rare three-dimensional images left of a man many recall only as a Nobel Peace Prize-winning martyr.

"He was a very warm human being. He wasn't the staid individual that everyone believes he was," said Gittens, now 82 and a resident of Spring Hill. "I thought it was time to let people know there was more to him than the 'I Have a Dream' speech."

Gittens shared some of those still vivid memories Monday afternoon at a celebration organized by the Hernando County NAACP in honor of King's birthday.

Nearly 400 people showed up at Kennedy Park in Brooksville to enjoy speeches, poems, gospel music and a dance contest.

The NAACP Youth Council organized the event for the first time in recent memory, said Isabel Harris, youth adviser of the local chapter. The charge of putting together one of the chapter's showcase events provided the youngest members a chance to assume some leadership and take on added responsibilities, Harris said.

"I thought it was going to be a lot of pressure," said Nickeyva Martin, a 17-year-old junior at Springstead High and president of the Youth Council. "Everyone was a little stressed, but it has turned out really well. Our turnout was extraordinary."

In between bites of barbecued ribs, fried fish and chitterlings, celebrants sat comfortably in the shade of oak trees and nodded approvingly during speeches from Brooksville's vice mayor Frankie Burnett, NAACP president Wayman Boggs and James Yant, who gave the keynote address.

Yant, who owns a State Farm insurance agency in Spring Hill and was a longtime educator in Hernando, geared much of his 15-minute speech to the children and teens in the audience.

He encouraged them to learn more about King's efforts during the civil rights movement and to evaluate the results, noting that many of the adults in the crowd lived through those turbulent times.

"What you see now ... is a remnant of Dr. King's dream," Yant said. "Is that dream a part of your mind and your heart?"

Earlier, Gittens shared with the crowd his brief but memorable encounter with King when he was a New York City police officer in the 1960s.

Gittens had been assigned to provide security for King but later accompanied him to a social gathering after a speech.

The outing provided Gittens with a rare glimpse into the lighter side of King, giving him a newfound appreciation for a man constantly dogged by death threats and the burden of being the very public face of the civil rights era.

"Just like you'd go to a party with your friends, he was the same way," Gittens said. "He was a prankster and had a tremendous sense of humor. He didn't have an attitude about him or anything."

Gittens hoped that some of those recollections about King would resonate with the kids. Nickeyva Martin, for one, called the messages from Yant and Gittens inspirational.

"We're trying to understand who he is and what he's done," Martin said.

"Being that we're here today, I believe that Dr. King's dream will stay alive forever."

Joel Anderson can be reached at joelanderson@sptimes.com or 754-6120.

[Last modified January 21, 2008, 20:23:26]