Expanded King event considered

Organizers want to make future King celebrations festivals of multiculturalism.

By MATTHEW WAITE

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 16, 2001

NEW PORT RICHEY -- Eugene Scott got his energy back.

[Times photo: Janel Schroeder] Mack Jones sings Lift Every Voice while his daughter, 4-year-old Kendra, follows along Monday at Sims Park in New Port Richey.

Moments after the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration finished up in Sims Park, Scott said Monday's celebration was just a sample of what he had envisioned for Martin Luther King Jr. celebrations of the future.

"I'm getting ready to shift into first gear," said Scott, the president of the Afro-American Club of West Pasco, which sponsored the event. "I'm determined to make it bigger."

And when he talks bigger, he talks in terms of the city's largest event, Chasco Fiesta. Scott, in years to come, would like to make the King celebration a festival of multiculturalism, with each of Pasco County's ethnic and cultural groups teaching people about themselves.

"I just have this renewed energy to go again," Scott said. "Stay tuned for part two."

James Dorsett sings the opening song for the 11th annual celebration in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday at Sims Park.

Part of Scott's energy comes from people who came to the 11th King celebration in New Port Richey's Sims Park. Monday marks King's birth 72 years ago, and celebrates the life of the civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

More than 70 people gathered around the band shell, and another 50 or so were milling around the park area, watching from the playground or from near the water. The number was more than last year, Scott said.

The program, now in its 11th year in New Port Richey, included songs from Brenda and James Dorsett and rap music about King from Mark "Cueball" Cotroneo, a police officer in Pinellas County and former Pasco County sheriff's deputy.

Also included was a history lesson from Brenda Dorsett, who teaches social studies at an elementary school in Palm Harbor. Dorsett said she was impressed that Pasco, with such a small black population, would have a King celebration.

Dorsett said that when King began his civil rights work, he believed there were two key problems: segregation and poverty. Dorsett told the audience how both factors, and many others, had been used to justify the enslavement of Africans throughout history and the treatment of blacks throughout the southern U.S. following the Civil War.

King, she said, organized non-violent protest against segregationist laws, and later advocated the redistribution of wealth to aid the poor.

"Our struggle continues," Dorsett said. "The questions remain the same."

Poverty, homelessness, hungry children and drugs affect everyone, she said. Black people must stop referring to themselves as minorities -- as it makes them sound inferior, she said -- as well as quit using racial epithets as common speech among themselves and start studying their history.

"As humans, we must stand together," Dorsett said. "In order to find Dr. King's dream we must find peace in ourselves."

Patrick and Wilhelmina James, both born in Africa and retired to west Pasco in 1993, said they wished more people had been there to hear Dorsett. Patrick James said he agreed with Dorsett's thoughts about changing people's minds, but there were other problems to overcome than people's own perceptions.

Still, Patrick James said, this year will see the first black secretary of state in Colin Powell.

"We are making progress," he said. "Very, very slowly."

- Staff writer Matthew Waite can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6247 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 6247. His e-mail address is waite@sptimes.com.

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