By Eugene T. Lowe
June 23, 2003

Hempstead Mayor James A. Garner opened up the Sunday June 8 breakfast and ceremony reaffirming mayoral commitment to civil and human rights saying "we are in the midst of greatness this morning: Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglass, Mahatma Gandhi, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The breakfast ceremony was held on Sunday, June 8, in City Park at the site of the "I Have A Dream" monument recently dedicated and unveiled by Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb of the sculpture of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that stands on a pedestal which feature bronze statutes of the four great human rights leaders cited by Mayor Garner in his opening remarks.

In addition to Garner, remarks during the brief ceremony were given by Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell, Rochester Mayor William Johnson, Conference of Mayors Executive Director J. Thomas Cochran (who also presided during the ceremony), Akron Mayor Donald L. Plusquellic, and finally, Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb and First Lady Wilma J. Webb.

Campbell told the story of her mother's support of the first African American, to become mayor of Cleveland, Carl Stokes, and how Martin Luther King Jr. was involved in that effort. Campbell, who was 12 years old at the time said that her mother invited Martin Luther King, Jr. to their all white suburban church. The result was a split church, bomb threats to Campbell's home, and a decision by the decorating committee of the church to remove the pews from the sanctuary. Their reasoning, said Campbell, was "he couldn't possibly come if there weren't pews." This, of course, didn't deter Campbell's mother who responded: "he-ll be outside and everyone will know he's here." Then the church told her that the public address system didn't work. But it did work on the day that Martin Luther King, Jr. came to the church.

Campbell closed her remarks with words of what the occasion on this day meant: "As we stand here in front of this statute, it's a place for people to tell that story, the story of someone who stood for something that he believed in, who stood tall for the opportunity for all of us to participate. And because of the strength of his vision, the courage of his personality, and the ultimate justice of his words, he is now a hero."

Johnson thanked Webb for having the vision to have the "I Have A Dream" monument erected "in a most unlikely place, here in middle America, at the crossroads of America." Johnson told the story of Frederick Douglass, born in Maryland, and who later escaped from slavery to Rochester, New York, "one of the last stops of the Underground Railroad." It was in Rochester, the mayor said that Douglass established himself, published his newspaper, The North Star. Douglass, also teamed up with another Rochester native, Susan B. Anthony, the leader of the women's rights movement.

Johnson said: "If there had been no Frederick Douglass, no Sojourner Truth, there would be no Martin Luther King. And if their struggles had not had an instructive part to them, then Martin Luther King, Jr, would not have been able to navigate his way to a path that brought the victories that these great leaders of the 19th century worked so hard for."

Conference Executive Director J. Thomas Cochran gave a brief overview of the Conference of Mayors's role in civil and human rights. He told of President Kennedy presenting his five-point plan on civil rights to mayors a few months before his murder. A long list of mayors were involved at key times in the struggle for civil and human rights: Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen testified for Public Accommodations; Washington, D.C. Mayor Marion Barry first told the mayors about Nelson Mandella; Kansas City Mayor Dick Berkeley hosted a ceremony at the United Nations centered around human rights; mayors supported Dr. King when he shifted "from the movement of politics to economics and even into the war"; Whitney Young of the Urban League was the first black man to speak to the United States Conference of Mayors. Cochran said: "So our history is very, very, very much embedded in the civil rights struggle and in the human rights struggle around the world. And I know on behalf of my staff, we are honored to serve mayors who live and breathe it every day. And we must keep the struggle going."

In his remarks, Plusquellic emphasized what the"I Have a Dream" Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial site means today, especially for the Conference of Mayors. The mayor said: "I think it is for us to say that Martin Luther King was about hope and providing hope to people, give them hope in their lives, to build that spirit of hope in each one of them, to give them an open door to opportunity. And the way to do that, that bridge to opportunity and to provide hope is education. I know we will continue as a conference to emphasize the important work that goes on throughout this country to educate our young people. And part of that challenge, I say, is to teach the lessons of what these individuals stood for, what they actually experienced in their lives, and make that real to our young people."

Webb explained how the monument had come about. He said that it did not start out as a regular plan. He said: "There was a previous King sculpture here that was done by a previous commission and during the course of a walk through city hall with a sculptor named Ed Dwight, we thought it was appropriate to replace the sculpture that was here because it did not favor Dr. King. It was a sculpture that caused a lot of controversy. Some considered it abstract art. It was not something the community rallied around." He added: "And so we wanted to have a different memorial and Ed Dwight came up with the concept and much of what you see here today."

Webb said that his wife, First Lady Wilma J. Webb, was the key mover in getting the monument erected. The first lady as a state legislator was also successful after six tries in getting a Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday passed. In dedicating the monument, the first lady saw to it that the relatives of each of those represented in the public art memorial were present. The sculpture, which cost one million dollars in private money, was dedicated on June 9, 2002.

First Lady Webb closed out the ceremony with these words: "We know that the mayors are the ones who are to keep the dream alive and to move the dream forward because of all the kinds of things that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for and all of these people whose shoulders we stood on are the issues that we face in our homes, on our streets, in our schools, and even in terms of trying to have food or trying to make sure that the kinds of things that we are addressing in 2003 such as AIDS across the world, such as all the kinds of things that mayors have to do in terms of looking at their cities and seeing areas where there may be deprivation or the need for improving, they all come back to what's inside of us and the morality of what's in us to make things happen."