COMMUNITY PAYS TRIBUTE TO DR. KING

America's blacks have made progress since the murder of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 28 years ago, a black educator said Monday.

But King's dream of racial equality and harmony hasn't been fully realized, said the educator, Mark Stansbury.

If King were alive today, he would see "a mixed bag of success and failure," said Stansbury, interim president of Shelby State Community College at Memphis, Tenn. "We certainly have not made it to the mountaintop," he said.

King would have been troubled by the poverty and crime that still plagues America, Stansbury said.

Stansbury spoke to a crowd of about 400 people at the 11th annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast at the Show Me Center.

Stansbury urged the audience to become "drum majors for justice."

Monday night, Marie Walker, a social worker at May Greene Elementary School, became the 1996 recipient of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award. She was presented the award at the conclusion of the sixth annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. community celebration at Centenary United Methodist Church.

Dr. Bill Atchley, Southeast Missouri State University president, said the nation's celebration of King's birthday offers an opportunity to teach another generation of Americans about King's vision of a race- and gender-blind society.

Dawn Evans, local president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said King preached against the "economic murder" of blacks, who were denied decent jobs and housing.

"He realized a people who are oppressed have no voice," Evans said.

Evans said the struggle for civil rights continues today. "I ask you, I urge you to please join the fight for freedom," she said.

Stansbury said King viewed education as a liberating force.

Stansbury said education needs to be coupled with social action. The nation, he said, must focus its energies on addressing illiteracy, unemployment and poverty.

He said King was "full of regrets" about the United States but remained optimistic about the future. "You would have to say that the brother had hope."

At a press conference after the breakfast, Stansbury said he favors reducing the size of the federal government, but doesn't want to scrap civil rights laws. He said he has seen progress in civil rights in Memphis.

He serves as executive assistant to the president at the University of Memphis. The school was segregated nearly 40 years ago. Black students couldn't attend, Stansbury said. Today, the university is integrated. Many of Memphis' top city officials are black, as are a majority of the members of the city council.

In accepting her award Monday night, Walker said, "I enjoy my work and didn't realize you could get an award for that."

But Walker did have some thoughts on helping shape the future.

"We can't focus on the racial bias," she said. "We can't afford risking it for the children. We are the keepers of the dream. Everyone of us have a little Martin Luther King Jr. in us if we let it come out."

And by encouraging and helping others, people let Dr. King's qualities come out, Walker said.

"I grew up when segregation was in style," she said. "In eighth grade, I went to an all-white school. My mother talked to us and said `You are just as good as every other child at that school.' And that's what I try to teach to every child I come in contact with."

The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award is presented annually to a person who embodies the qualities of peace and nonviolence that King supported and works for their community. It is presented by the Fellowship of Reconciliation and the Cape Girardeau chapter of the NAACP.

At Centenary church, Ina Boon, a former regional director for the NAACP, spoke about the need for more youth programs, minority empowerment and voter registration and education.

"We wonder what he meant when he said, `Free at last, free at last. Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last.' But we understand today. None of us are free until all of us are free."