How do you remember Dr. King?

LOLITA HARPER

His face was duplicated 60 times along the hall of my son’s school,

each colored by the children in their own likeness. Those who were

aware of skin color, like the 3- and 4-year-olds in Donovan’s class,

knew to use the brown crayon to color Martin Luther King Jr.’s face.

But the younger children colored him green, purple and red. Very

fitting for a man who wanted the world to be color blind. As I walked

my son from his classroom, I began to wonder how the legacy of King

translated to a 4-year-old.

“Do you know what he did, or who he was?” I asked.

“Um, he dreamed that all people would be nice to each other,”

Donovan said, and then he quickly added, “and be equal.”

I love the answers that children give. Basically, that is what it

all boils down to. I began to think about what the rest of this

community was doing to commemorate King’s birthday besides taking the

day off of work.

The next day at the office, I called around.

The students of Newport Elementary worked to “Make it a day on,

not a day off,” by coordinating a canned food drive at their school

on Monday. The focus of the program is to make the Monday holiday a

day of service, in conjunction with the Martin Luther King Jr.

holiday.

I called Principal Denise Knutsen so I could understand the

connection between the King holiday and feeding the hungry.

“It was just something that was brought about by one of our

parents who works with the Volunteer Center of Orange County,”

Knutsen said. “I mean, here is [Martin Luther King], a man who really

stood for service and the community.”

Society certainly benefited from Martin Luther King Jr.’s efforts

to organize a movement of those who believe in equality for all, to

fight for civil rights and inspire people with his moving words, but

I must argue his legacy goes far beyond that of simple community

service. Of course, the children’s hearts are in the right place by

trying to do some good for their fellow man, but I hope they

understand that King was about much, much more than setting up a box

in a school hallway for folks to drop off cans of creamed corn and

garbanzo beans.

Aside from the canned food drive, Knutsen said her students have

learned the significance of the holiday through the regular

curriculum. King is honored and discussed in all the classrooms and

the lessons vary from teacher to teacher.

“Other teachers carry it even further with the whole ‘I have a

dream’ thing,” Knutsen said. “Others assign writing assignments or

other things.”

Newport Beach Mayor Tod Ridgeway said his children will definitely

do the “I have a dream thing” and recite King’s famous speech on

Monday in honor of the holiday. The Ridgeway family recently visited

Washington, D.C., and his children saw the actual site from where

King delivered that stirring speech.

“They are very, very involved in the legacy,” Ridgeway said of his

children Kyle, Scott and Madison.

As is Ridgeway, who reminded me that while I only learned of

King’s legacy through textbooks, he lived through it by following

newspaper articles and debates. Ridgeway said the lessons of equal

rights and diversity were heartfelt for him and most of his

generation. After leaving his hometown of Atwater, a Los Angeles

suburb, Ridgeway saw, even more profoundly, the effect that King had

while he was studying the landmark case that ended school

segregation, Brown vs. the Board of Education, in law school.

And long before he became a million-dollar developer and

politician in Newport Beach, the mayor was a public defender in Los

Angeles, where he spent most of his time in the cells of Men’s

Central Jail with his clients.

“I loved that part of my life,” he said.

That part is now gone, and although he touts his public service,

he has yet to show his children the Los Angeles neighborhood in which

he grew up, or the halls of justice where he defended the poorest of

the county’s criminals, who did not have enough money to hire private

council -- most likely a clientele of various skin colors.

“There will be a time in my life that I do that, but for now I

have chosen to raise them with acceptance of our diverse social

strata that is continuing to evolve,” he said.

Ridgeway is also content with leaving the public lessons of King’s

legacy to the school district. Newport Beach does not have any

celebrations or commemorations planned for the holiday, and neither

does Costa Mesa.

School district spokeswoman Jane Garland said the district wants

each child to know who King was and why they get the day off.

“I think one thing to me is that we must understand that we have a

long way to go to truly understand equality and compassion for those

that are different from us,” said Garland, whose husband marched with

King with their first child on his back. “We have come a long way and

made great strides since the 1960s, but we are certainly not to where

we would like to be.”

Garland said it is the responsibility of the school district to

teach history -- and it does so by tackling slavery in eighth grade

and recent U.S. history in 11th. But it is up to everyone to

understand the past. These lessons cannot be taught by one

institution but should be tackled by us all, she said.

Her words brought me back to the halls of my son’s classroom.

“Look mommy, he is brown like me,” Donovan said of Martin Luther

King.

I began to wonder if I had a special role in raising a half-black

son in a predominantly white neighborhood? I called Donovan’s father,

Rodney Sermons, to ask for his input.

Despite his mahogany skin color, Rodney was always somebody who

got along very well with everybody. Be it because of his dashing

smile, his natural charm or his success on the football field, he was

always everybody’s pal.

Rodney has a degree from USC, is a mortgage account executive and

owns his own home in Phillips Ranch. He could think of only one time

that he was blatantly discriminated against because he was black.

“How often does it happen?” he said. “I couldn’t tell you because

I don’t know about it. It definitely happens to all black people. I

guess it is just a matter of how much.”

Regardless, the lessons of King are still essential, he said.

“That movement gives me the opportunity to feel like I have a

chance to succeed without having any barriers,” he said. “And having

a son that is multicultural, I know that he will have the same things

I had.”

And so this father had a long and in-depth conversation with his

4-year-old son about King and civil rights and the history of “brown

people” -- as Donovan calls them -- clear back to slavery.

“He was asking all kinds of questions, so I answered him,” Rodney

said. “I told him why he is able to attend the same school as his

friends and drink out of the same drinking fountain. I made sure he

knows that it is not about how you look on the outside but the way

you are on the inside.”

“So, should I be doing anything special?” I asked.

“Nope, just regular stuff,” he said. “Really, we celebrate Martin

Luther King Jr. Day everyday. It may be overlooked, but we do. Every

time I walk into a business meeting or get another client, it is a

celebration of what King accomplished.”

* LOLITA HARPER is the community forum editor. She also writes

columns Wednesdays and Fridays. She may be reached at (949) 574-4275

or by e-mail at lolita.harper@latimes.com.