'We Won't be Going Anywhere Until'
"We won't be going anywhere until justice rains down," shouted Eugene Farrar, who works for Chapel Hill Public Works and is first vice president of the Chapel Hill/Carrboro chapter of the NAACP.
"We won't go anywhere until we have the same opportunities for black kids in this rich school system, We won't go anywhere until we have affordable housing. We need to stop profiling African American kids." Farrar's theme was echoed by all the speakers at the town's annual Martin Luther King observance. They all indicated that King's dream has not been realized.
"We have not overcome," said Yonni Chapman, head of the NAACP Historical Commission. "Institutional racism is still a powerful force although it is hidden and denied. He pointed out that the constroversial Silent Sam statue on campus remains as a silent memorial to slavery but nowhere is there a memorial to the civil rights movement.
About 200 people gathered Monday, Jan. 15, at 9:30 a.m. at the courthouse downtown to observe Martin Luther King Day. Speakers talked about Martin Luther King, Jr., and his dream before marching down Franklin Street to the First Baptist Church.
City councilman Mark Kleinschmidt
The MLK observance also drew several Iraq war protestors
Retired civil rights attorney Al McSurely, right, listens
Yonni Chapman speaks as children hold a banner.
