Hope and realism are served up at King luncheon

As a member of what some refer to as the Department of Justice's "Navy Seals," Sharee Freeman is often dispatched to America's domestic trouble spots — like last summer's riot-torn community of Benton Harbor, Mich.

These are the places, Freeman said, where it's clear that the dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. haven't yet come true. Benton Harbor is 90 percent black. Nearly one in four families lives below the poverty level, and nearly one in four adults does not have a high school diploma.

Clearly, Freeman said, "there is no promised land" in Benton Harbor yet. "We still have work to do."

Freeman, director of the Community Relations Service of the U.S. Department of Justice, was in Salt Lake City on Monday as keynote speaker at the 21st annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Luncheon, sponsored by the Salt Lake branch of the NAACP.

The luncheon, like King himself, was full of both hope and realism — celebrating the life and work of the slain civil-rights leader and at the same time acknowledging that America still suffers from inequality.

"The quest is for respect and dignity, and we still have a ways to go," noted Judge Andrew Valdez, who received the group's 2004 Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Award for his work as 3rd District Juvenile Court judge and, before that, as a public defender.

"Martin Luther King was an inspiration to me," Valdez told the lunch audience at the Grand America Hotel. "And inspiration is an act of grace you receive, like a blessing." King's dream was for equality, he noted, "and equality doesn't just mean 'improvement.' "

The NAACP gave its 2004 Rosa Parks Award to Eva Sexton, 82, who has fought for equality for blacks in Utah since the 1950s. Sexton and her husband Henry have been foster parents to 112 children of many races.

"I love to see children develop their potential in life," Sexton said.

The lunch head table included Gov. Olene Walker, Rep. Jim Matheson, U.S. Attorney Paul Warner and Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff.

The U.S. Justice Department's Freeman said the department's Community Relations Service is the only federal agency dedicated to preventing and solving racial conflicts. The CRS is dispatched to riot scenes and to the aftermath of hate crimes.

Their work, Freeman said, is founded on the principle King paraphrased from Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi: "We must be the change we seek in the world."

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