Going into Culver City’s two-day celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday this weekend at the Senior Center, an amazing footnote for the mature crowd is that two generations have grown up since Dr. King was assassinated on his hotel balcony in Memphis.
Forty-two years have passed since the awful spring day in April of 1968 when he was cut down in his prime, at 39 years old.
Dr. King’s birthday is today. He would have been 81 years old, an image virtually impossible to envision.
Under the King Day chairmanshi[p of Bill Wynn, Culver City’s Saturday and Sunday afternoon-long salutes will revolve around the theme, “Have We Accomplished Dr. King’s Dream?”
Did the election of Barack Obama, as America’s first black President, 14 months ago make an affirmative answer more obvious?
Or not?
Debate still prevails in many neighborhoods across America as to how steeply racism has receded — enough to warrant celebration? Too little to be more than marginally satisfactory? As much as it ever will?
Three Main Attractions
While wall-lining multi-cultural marketplaces will form the foundation of both days of programming at the Senior Center, there will be three special attractions.
The Senior Center celebration on Saturday is billed from 12 noon to 6.
At 6 o’clock, the first of three back-to-back-to-back brief documentary films will be screened — “Obama’s Tears of Joy,” by hometown filmmaker Bobby Mardis; “Salute to Change,” by Louis Williams, a Cal State Long Beach student; and finally, “Two Societies,” a segment from the noted film “Eyes on the Prize.”
Sunday’s activity hours are listed from 11 to 5, featuring a panel discussion at 2:30,, and closing with an up-tempo performance by an award-winning choir.
Newly elected School Board member Patricia Siever will moderate a panel examination of the theme, “Have We Accomplished Dr. King’s Dream?” The panelists: Dr. Anthony Samad, co-founder of 100 Black Men, Los Angeles chapter; Dr. Buashie Amatokwu, chief specialist for the Census Bureau Count; Marianne Kim, of the Parks and Recreation Commission; and Jose Medina, a student at West Los Angeles College.
In a closing act that should, enthusiastically bring the crowd to its feet, the Valley Crossroads Chorale group, winner of the McDonald’s gospel choirs competition, will bid a rousing farewell to the weekend.
The Senior Center is at 4095 Overland Ave., the northeast corner of the intersection of Culver Boulevard. For information, ccmlk.com
