To Richard Taylor the struggle of Martin Luther King Jr. and other civil rights activists means that he and others from his racial background — Native American and African American — now have opportunities from which they had been barred.

Taylor, 26, an AmeriCorps volunteer, was one of about 175 people who honored King's memory Monday by delivering food from the Utah Food Bank to senior citizens. "If Martin Luther King Jr. was still alive, he'd be out here doing the same thing," Taylor said.

Across the state, Utahns took time Monday to honor the memory of the late civil rights leader born Jan. 15, 1929, and assassinated on April 4, 1968.

Observances in Utah included the Utah Legislature, NAACP observances in Ogden and Salt Lake, and a candlelight "Walk of Life" at Brigham Young University.

Utah lawmakers took time from their first day in session to hear from Darius Gray, author and former president of Genesis Group, a group for black members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Gray quizzed lawmakers on history, pointing out that more lawmakers correctly answered his questions on European history than on black history.

When he asked senators who killed King, there were few replies. The answer: James Earl Ray.

Another fact many lawmakers didn't know: Utah was at one time a slave territory.

"Society teaches that which it values," Gray said. "We have not valued black contributions."

Sen. Patrice Arent, D-South Cottonwood, said starting the session on the holiday is constitutionally mandated and that changing it would require changing the state's Constitution.

"I've very happy that we acknowledge this very important holiday," Arent said. "I would prefer starting on a different day, however, I am glad we had such a wonderful ceremony today."

The Salt Lake and Ogden branches of the NAACP each commemorated the holiday. Betty Sawyer, president of the NAACP Ogden Branch, said the estimated 250 people who attended a prayer breakfast at the Marshall White Community Center together donated about $700 to the NAACP.

About 400 people attended the NAACP Salt Lake Branch's $50-per-plate 22nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Luncheon at the Little America Hotel.

Edward L. Lewis Jr., president of the NAACP Tri-State Conference for Idaho, Nevada and Utah, said children are the future, but it's this generation's responsibility to take action.

"At some point, it's time to stop deferring the dream to our children and grandchildren," he said. "It's the responsibility of those in leadership today to take action."