Elders: ‘I’M Not Sure We’ve Overcome’ Former Surgeon General Says Backward Steps Would Have Saddened King

More work is needed to turn the dream of Martin Luther King Jr. into reality, former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders said Monday at one of the nation’s many observances of the slain civil rights leader’s birthday.

“He left us the movement that we shall overcome, but I’m not sure we’ve overcome,” Elders told a crowd of about 4,000 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “We still have a long way to go.”

Elders, the first black surgeon general, said that if King were alive today, he would be saddened by the breakdown of families, decaying neighborhoods and the rise in young people killing each other.

King, who would have been 67 Monday, was killed April 4, 1968. His birthday was made a federal holiday in 1986, and President Clinton marked it by preaching racial unity from King’s former pulpit in Atlanta.

Observances elsewhere ranged from somber to festive, some focused on ordinary people, others on national leaders.

Del Charles, organizer of a march in Little Rock, Ark., said Shriners, Masons, classic cars and anyone who wanted to could join the parade because King believed in inclusion.

“That’s Central High School,” he said, nodding toward the band from the school that was an integration battleground.

At a church scarred by the federal building bombing last April in Oklahoma City, the disaster only reinforced King’s message.

“Those who perpetuated this crime against those 19 beautiful children and those wonderful adults did not know his ideas,” said Dr. Jihad Ahmad, a local civil rights leader.

In Philadelphia, where retired Gen. Colin Powell led a ceremonial ringing of the Liberty Bell, some 70 high school students spent a “day on” working in various community service projects.

“Nothing would have frustrated Martin more than people supposedly honoring him by sitting at home watching TV or sleeping late,” said former Sen. Harris Wofford, who now runs the Corporation for National Service.

Several hundred people marched through downtown Memphis, Tenn., to the National Civil Rights Museum, built around the Lorraine Motel where King was assassinated.

Others gathered at a Memphis park named for King beside the Mississippi River.

“I grew up in this neighborhood, but I couldn’t even come up in this park,” said resident Aretha King. “Now my grandchildren can play here.”

In St. Louis, teacher Marabeth Gentry said this year’s observance was tinged with sadness.

“It seems like we are going backwards, instead of forward,” Gentry said. “But they say sometimes you have to step back before you can move forward.”

Many at the observance in downtown St. Louis said they believed the O.J. Simpson trial and his acquittal on murder charges had racially divided the country.

“We need to love each other,” said Cecil McBriar of Springfield. “Look each other in the eye. Help each other. We’re all part of the human race, black or white or green or yellow.”