Racial Tolerance at Forefront of Parade : Gardena: The founder of the Martin Luther King Jr. Program will serve as grand marshal at the annual event honoring the late civil rights leader. .

The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed 24 years ago, but his dream has been kept alive by people like Arthur Johnson.

Founder and past president of the Martin Luther King Jr. Program in Gardena, which promotes racial understanding in schools and the community, Johnson has spent his adult life following the teachings of the civil rights leader.

And Saturday, that work will be recognized when Johnson serves as grand marshal for Gardena’s annual Martin Luther King Day Parade. The parade starts at 10 a.m. at Rowley Park, 13220 S. Van Ness Ave., and runs to the Gardena Civic Center.

Although Johnson, 63, stepped down as president of the group last year, he remains steadfastly loyal to the ideals and goals King espoused during the peak of the civil rights movement.

“My purpose was to keep the dream of Martin Luther King alive,” Johnson said. “Even more so than that was to try to bring the people of Gardena together and let them understand and give them a history of what had taken place and what was going on.”

Johnson created the nonprofit King program, funded by private donations and local merchants, in November, 1972, in an effort to fill the leadership void left by King’s death. Since its inception, the program has grown from a neighborhood-level organization to a citywide program that promotes cultural unity.

“When I first came to Gardena (in 1967), I felt tight and uneasy walking in this city,” Johnson said. “But I began to stretch out by forming clubs on my block, and from there we worked extremely hard to get to the point where it is now.”

The method for Johnson’s program is simple. Members of the group speak to school groups and civic and business leaders about the importance of positive racial relations. The organization also holds meetings on Wednesdays for adults and youths who are interested in promoting King’s message.

“We try to ask ourselves what we can do to try and continue a dream that he started,” said Johnson, who works as a counselor at Inglewood Adult School. “We ask how we as a people can move on and carry out a program he started and fought for. Can we continue by being disrespectful to ourselves or by having a bad image of ourselves? Or can we continue by trying to improve ourselves through education and helping other people out and moving within the mainstream?”

Johnson stresses that King’s ideals cannot be fully met unless more blacks are elected to local leadership positions, and he is equally emphatic about the non-confrontational role such leaders ought to play.

“We need Afro-Americans on the City Council, no question about that,” Johnson said. “But we need people who will work within the system, and not try to incite or inflame people. We need someone with a level head who will deal with people on an intelligent basis.”

Johnson’s involvement in the civil rights movement traces his Southern roots. Born near Tampa, Fla., Johnson was involved in the movement in Tallahassee and briefly took part in the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott. He also participated in other rallies headed by King.

Four years after King’s assassination, Johnson began the King program. He remained the program’s president until last year, watching it grow from just four members who shared the same neighborhood to a program that crosses city lines. The core membership of the group includes about 40 people, he said. The meetings are held at Gardena’s Rowley Park.

Johnson became involved in other community activities as well, including the city’s Planning Commission, where he currently serves. Johnson stepped down as president of the program last year.

“I regretted having to step down as chairman of this program because I felt like I was doing a lot of good there,” Johnson said. “My responsibilities here became greater and I had a lot of other responsibilities. So I had to give up something.”

Johnson remains closely tied to the program, however, holding the title of president emeritus and serves primarily as a consultant to the program’s new directors.

“This program has certainly changed some minds in Gardena,” he said. “Both black and white.”