Many gather at park to honor MLK's assassination anniversary
HOUSTON (KTRK) -- Forty-seven years ago to the day, Janice Sherman was a student at Texas Tech. She still remembers the news that reverberated through her dorm building, that the shepherd of the civil rights movement had been slain in Memphis.
"Students were crying - white and black," she recalls.
Saturday evening, Sherman came to MacGregor Park, to join hands around a towering bronze statue of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The event was to honor his memory, his legacy, and vow to continue it.
Dozens of people stood as ministers said prayers of thanks for King, and prayers for tolerance and equality.
Sherman says she appreciates advances in race relations. Still, she says, "I have twin sons, and I worry about them. There are still police shootings, so there's farther to go."
Several generations younger, Sam Lemons paid his own homage to Dr. King, comparing him to Ghandi in his approach to non-violence in the face of violent confrontation.
"He is history and an icon," Lemons said. "It means a lot, not only to African-Americans, but everyone that he took a non-violent approach to bringing all people together, for a common ground of understanding, and that's what we should be trying for today."
