Secret Service backs down, MLK celebration to continue as planned

By Buddy Grizzard

special to the Redding News Review

ATLANTA, Jan 14, 2003, 10 p.m. - Rev. James Orange and the MLK March Committee met at 2 p.m. today at the offices of SCLC/WOMEN, Inc., the nonprofit organization founded by Mrs. Evelyn G. Lowery, to discuss security arrangements for President George W. Bush's planned visit to the King Memorial tomorrow. Orange had previously been instructed by National Parks Service Police to cut short a planned Human Rights Conference and Immigration Symposium at Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church , adjacent to the Memorial, so that the Secret Service could cordon off the area prior to Bush's arrival.

At the meeting, the Secret Service backed off of its previous demand that the area be vacated by 2 p.m., and indicated that the Symposium could go forward as scheduled, but that attendees would not have return access after 2:30 p.m. Bush is expected to visit the burial site of the slain civil rights leader shortly after 4 p.m. to lay a wreath. Orange, the head of the MLK March Committee, said he was satisfied that the Symposium would not be interrupted by Bush's visit.

A controversy errupted after the Atlanta Journal-Constitution published a story in Saturday's edition which reported that Bush was planning to visit the King Memorial as part of the King birthday celebration. The article created the impression that Orange and Georgia Coalition for the Peoples’ Agenda Convenor Dr. Joseph Lowery had extended the invitation to Bush. Orange stated on Tuesday at a GCPA luncheon at the Georgia Coalition for the People's agenda that Bush had invited himself, and that he would not allow the president’s visit to disrupt the planned activities for King Week.

With the security arrangements settled, events planned by the MLK March Committe will now proceed as scheduled. The Symposium will take place tomorrow at Historic Ebenezer from 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and will feature a range of panelists speaking on issues of immigration and human rights. The 9:15-10:15 a.m. session will feature Maria Elena Durazo, General Vice President of the Hotel Employees and Restaraunt Employees International Union and organizer for last year's Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, and Pat Ford, Vice President of the Service Employees International Union.

The 10:15-11:15 session will feature a number of panelists addressing issues of Immigration and Human Rights, and the 11:15-12:15 panel on Human Rights and Civic Participation will feature Dr. Lowery and Ambassador Andrew Young. After a lunch break, the Symposium will conclude with a panel on African Human Rights and a town hall meeting hosted by Yassin Kassim of the Atlanta Independent Taxi Drivers Association, to call attention to working conditions for taxi drivers at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.

On Saturday, the King Celebration will continue with the annual Stop the Violence Youth conference at the King Historic Site and Community Center. This annual event gives Atlanta-area students a chance to interact with veterans of the Civil Rights Movement and learn conflict resolution techniques which can help diffuse situations in daily life which might lead to violence. Also on Saturday, at 4 p.m., the MLK March Committee presents the first annual M.L. King, Jr. Battle of the Bands at Herndon Stadium on the campus of Morris Brown College. The contest will feature high school bands from Atlanta and the Southeast, and will be judged by a panel including members of the bands at Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College, and Redding News Review editor and publisher Robert Redding, Jr.

Tickets for the Battle of the Bands will be available at the gate starting two hours before the event begins, and attendees are encouraged to arrive early in case of a sell-out. Tickets are $10 each, and proceeds from the event will bennefit Morris Brown in its struggle to regain accreditation, as well as SCLC/WOMEN.

On Sunday at 7 p.m., the annual M.L. King, Jr. Gospel Concert will take place at the Rialto Center for the Performing Arts on the campus of Georgia State University. The concert will feature James Bignon and the Deliverance Mass Choir and Rev. R.L. White and the Mount Ephraim Baptist Church Choir. Tickets are available at the Rialto box office and are $20.

And finally on Monday the annual MLK March will begin at 1 p.m. on Peachtree Street between Ellis and Baker Streets and terminate on Auburn Avenue in front of the King Center. Honorary grand marshalls this year include Mayor Shirley Franklin, Ms. Durazo, Ms. Patricia Ford, Rev. R.L. White and Ms. Ruby Shinhoster.