Derrick King fired up a group of cold marchers Monday by reminding them that in the same way that Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams was murdered by gunfire, so, too, was his famous uncle, Martin Luther King Jr., murdered by gunfire.
We need to invest a whole lot in getting guns out of our children s hands and putting books in them, King told the roughly 1,200 marchers in Monday s 22nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Marade. The crowd had just walked from City Park to Civic Center, where they listened to Derrick King while shivering in the single-digit temperatures despite bright sunshine and blue skies.
King, a Christian minister in Indianapolis and the son of the activist s brother, A.D. King, told the crowd that since his uncle s assassination in 1968, three social giants have been eliminated segregation on public transportation, segregation in public restaurants or lunch counters, and the resistance in many areas of allowing blacks to vote.
We legislated those three social giants away, but there are still four more, he said, listing poverty, racism, violence and ignorance. Violence drew the loudest response.
Before leaving City Park, a number of politicians and civic leaders addressed the crowd, then placed a wreath at the foot of the King memorial and statue.
Gov. Bill Ritter told the crowd that Martin Luther King Jr. didn t speak about the future in the near-term.
He was a bold and daring man of vision, who spoke of the future as 40, 50 or 100 years from now, Ritter said. We should think of what we will be like not next year but in 10, 20 or 50 years from now. We should think of an education system that provides quality education to all children…of health care that is accessible to everyone…of economic opportunities in which everyone has a job that can make a difference for your children.
Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said a new King memorial in Washington, D.C., is still $30 million short in funding. He said King would not want the shortfall to be made up by a few large corporations but by the little people, the people in need, the people he represented.
Hickenlooper urged everyone in the crowd to donate $2 to the Me Too for $2 fund to pay for the memorial. The Denver Foundation made envelopes available.
Former state representative Wilma Webb, who sponsored legislation in the 1980s creating the state s Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, urged the crowd to support the national memorial. It is the first memorial, ever, ever, she said, that represents all the people who matter.
