Utahns pay tribute to King

Yanira Duran's 5-year-old daughter, Andrea, asked if a gathering of volunteers at the Utah Food Bank Monday was a party.

"I said, 'in a way,'" said Duran of West Jordan, one of roughly 220 volunteers who celebrated the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Monday by delivering food to the elderly and disabled.

Duran said she wanted her daughter to get an early taste of voluntarism. Duran and Abebh Ipson of Draper, both AmeriCorps volunteers, said the event was a way to honor King's legacy.

"The best part is this coming together as a group," Ipson said. "People of different races coming together for the common good."

Around the state, Utahns took time to honor King Monday on the 20th federal holiday named for the late civil rights activist, and the sixth such state holiday.

Known for his message of change through nonviolence, King received the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of 35. King was assassinated on April 4, 1964, while standing on a hotel balcony in Memphis, Tenn. He was there to support striking sanitation workers.

Judge Shauna Graves-Robinson, the presiding judge of Salt Lake County Justice Court, addressed both the House and Senate as part of a presentation by the Martin Luther King Jr./Human Rights Commission in celebration of the federal holiday commemorating King's birthday.

She told the lawmakers to ask themselves, "How will the decisions I made today affect the poor, disillusioned and youth?"

A Salt Lake native and West High School graduate, Graves-Robinson detailed her battles with adversity as she worked to become the only black female judge in the state.

"I am the realization of the dream," she said, referencing the vision laid out by King in his famous "I Have a Dream" speech.

"Every disadvantaged child will face adversity," she said, "and it is those children who need the support and opportunities the state has the power to bestow."

Also, Monday the Salt Lake Branch NAACP honored King's legacy with its 23rd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day Memorial Luncheon, themed "NAACP: Conscience of a Nation."

Paul L. Hamilton, author of "African Peoples' Contributions to World Civilizations: Shattering the Myths," told the audience that he met King Jan. 1, 1960, in Athens, Ohio.

It was a time, he recalls, when blacks in general couldn't vote and not too long after the racial slaying of Emmett Till.

"Here was this minister with a doctorate degree, and who could talk and talk," Hamilton said. "Black was not beautiful then."

Hamilton recalled derogatory statements made about blacks through American history and began to research black history.