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AP AP Poll: Blacks Likelier to Celebrate MLK By WILL LESTER, Associated Press Writer Mon Jan 16, 4:11 PM ET WASHINGTON - Blacks are more likely than whites to commemorate Martin Luther King's birthday, an AP-Ipsos poll found. They're also more inclined to harbor doubts about progress toward his dream of racial equality.
Click Here Three-fourths of the people in this country say there has been significant progress toward equality, but only 66 percent of blacks felt that way. Racial integration has swept across much of American life, and blacks have gained economic ground since the height of the civil rights movement. Two decades ago, the government established a federal holiday in honor of the slain civil rights leader. On some measures such as annual income, blacks have closed the gap considerably with whites over the past few decades, census figures show. "People have opportunities, but things get in the way of those opportunities," said Latoya Williams, a black mother of four in Norfolk, Va. "The way the economy is now, you're working just to put a little food on the table. Just under a fourth of the population said they planned to commemorate King's birthday on Monday. A solid majority of blacks, 60 percent, said they would be involved. "Participating in the march and in church services is a good time of fellowship and is important in keeping the dream alive," said Aubrey Jones, a black deputy warden at a state prison near Macon, Ga. Fewer than one in six whites, 15 percent, planned to commemorate the day, the poll found. "It honors somebody who contributed quite a bit to our culture," she said. But only one-third of businesses offer a paid holiday, according to the Bureau of National Affairs. Participation in the holiday was enhanced by legislation passed in 1994 establishing the day as one of service. In many places, people will help with projects aimed to improve the community and help the needy. Supporters of the holiday try to discourage businesses from using it as a marketing gimmick. "Martin Luther King would turn over in his grave if he thought he was recognized by a day of shopping and rest," said former Sen.
"The idea that it's a day on and not a day off is catching on," Wofford said. "But the King holiday is well short of what it needs to be." "We've made great progress over the last 50 years," said Julian Bond, national chairman of the NAACP. "Progress has always been stop-and-start, and sometimes backup. Three-fourths of those polled say King should be honored with a federal holiday. Blacks almost unanimously favored that, according to the poll of 1,242 adults that included an oversample of blacks. The poll, taken Monday through Thursday, has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Accusations that King committed adultery and plagiarized material in academic writings emerged in the years after the holiday was established. Those claims remind people that King had human failings despite his larger-than-life image as a hero of the civil rights movement, said William Boone, a political scientist at Clark Atlanta University. "It does not diminish the mission he was on," Boone said. "People now have a tendency to sanitize him, to make him more palatable to a broader spectrum of the American population."
Xavier University freshman Adrienne Noble, left, lights the candle of fellow freshman Joanna Hill during a candle lit vigil in commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Hundreds of students from Tulane, Dillard, Xavier, and Loyola Universities gathered at the Holy Name of Jesus Church to honor the fallen civil rights leader.
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