Journal Gazette from Mattoon, Illinois • Page 5

o-iura kewsfapdis MARTIN LUTHER KING JRrDAY A5: oung urges acceptance of BusH, calls on Bush to im Ebenezer Baptist, Young said Bush must "follow the instincts of his mother and be a loving, uniting Jactarljra polarizing instincts of his party." In particular, Young cited would be so much hatred." On the day King would have turned 72, his widow, Coretta Scott her husband's "vibrant spirit of unconditional love" alive by work- n-vv i I i 7 K1 1 Bush's nomination of John Ashcroft, the Missouri senator who opposes affirmative action, to be attorney general "I know John Ashcroft," he said. "He really is a nice guy. He just isn't supposed to be attorney general at a time like this." In Houston, Bush, who" won a dismal 5 percent of black votes in his home state and one in nine nationwide, promised wary black Americans: "My job will be to not onlyjQ Jhe successful, but also to the "I will remember the promise etched in this day," the presidentelect said at a mostly black and Hispanic elementary school. "Dr. King's dream placed demands on each of us." Clinton followed the painting project with his own call for unity.

"If I could leave America with one wish as I depart office, it would be that we become more the 'one America' that we know we ought to be," Clinton said in a speech attheniversity-ofthe District of Columbia. King Day community service projects around Philadelphia drew more than 25,000 volunteers, organizers said. Among them was 14-year-old Marlena Jarmon, who helped paint the cafeteria at Strawberry Mansion High School. "I wonder what this world would be like with him still here," Marlena said. "I don't think there 10 10 Coretta Scott King, right, widow of slain civil rights leader Dr.

Martin Luther King and Dexter Scott. King, left, son of Dr. King and chairman of The King Center, react during The Martin Luther King Jr. Annual Commemorative Service at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta Monday. day weekend.

"All three were great men," said Jeb Stuart IV, president of the MLK promises blacks those who are suffering rat sat, By The Associated Press ATLANTA Andrew Young celebrated Martin Lulher Kine Day on Monday by urging Americans to put the divisiveness Qf the election behind them and accept George W. Bush as their president. He also urged Bush to avoid his party's "polarizing instincts." "As much and as hard as I worked to supnort Al Gore and to contiriue the tradition of Bill Clinton, it's time for us to realize that George Walker Bush is our president, or will be our president iiext week," Young, the former King aide who became Atlanta riavor and U.N. amhassarlnr. tnld ah audience of whites and atKing's former pulpit, Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Elsewhere around the country. King's birthday, was celebrated with marches, speeches and community service projects. President Clinton helped Americorps workers paint a senior center in Washington. In Virginia, it was the first time King Day was observed separately from a day honoring Confederate generals. Dozens of out-of-town visitors filled the pews of Ebenezer Baptist, including Jocolby Harrell, 18, of Raleigh, N.C., who said his family has been coming to Atlanta for the observance since he was a child.

"Thank God for King. King pavea me way ior DiacK people to have the same chances to go to college and pursue their dreams," Harrell said. In his keynote speech at the annual King Day service at Chicago men rebuild burned Florida church in King's honor TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -Two Chicago builders one white and one black say they epitomize the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. Ryan Simas and Derrick Prince remembered the teachings of the slain civil rights leader as they, worked Monday with other members of the self-named' "Dream Team" to build a new home for a black church destroyed by arson.

"We're leading by example. We're the perfect definition of what he stood for," said Prince, 29. The 16 Chicago-based volunteers began a weeklong effort to rebuild the new home of Faith Christian Fellowship Center burned down five years ago. This marks the fifth annual trip by the group to rebuild churches destroyed by arsonists, timed to coincide with Martin Luther King Day. Prince, who is black, and his white busihess partner, Simas, said their construction company grew out of skills they acquired volunteering on the destroyed churches.

The two men said they have learned a great deal about racism from the work they've done. Simas said that the volunteer group of blacks, whites and Latinos began with discussions that included a dialogue about race. 'This was a great way of having blacks and whites mixing together talking about things that hurt," Simas, 29, said. "You get a peek inside somebody's mind that helps you to understand why they act the way they act. The church's pastor, Howard McMillan, said the event was happening "at the right time and in the right city." Civil rights leaders have tar- geted Florida for.

investigations because of complaints that thousands of minority voters were disenfranchised by not being Landlords fined ing for peace, justice and economic equality. the civil rights leader's eldest son, Martin Luther King III, pretended to ring the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia. "When I symbolically rang that bell, the first thing I thoughfabout in terms of liberty and freedom and justice is that we haven't achieved it yet," he said. "But we can make it happen." The Rev. Fred Shuttlesorth, a King to lead civil rights demon strations in Birmingham', returned to Alabama to pay homage to his slain colleague.

He told his racially mixed audience to forgive the politicians and white supremacists who tried to maintain racial separation in the 1960s through the segregation laws and violence. "You must remember that if you can't forgive, God can't forgive you," said Shuttles worth, whose own home was bombed in 1956, the year he formed the Atobamahristianlovement for Human Rights. Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore addressed thousands of people in Richmond on their state's first stand-alone King Day. "This is a celebration, so let's celebrate!" he shouted.

Until this year, Virginia had combined the federal King holiday with a state observance for Civil War Gens, Robert E. Lee and 'diU attending a coalition of burned churches conference. Public interest in church arsons appears to have dropped, off, McMillan said, although an average of about 80 churches a year are being burned. Each of the volunteers had to contribute $500 for travel and lodging expenses, and they nearly had to cancel their trip after their sponsoring organization, World Relief, withdrew its support. Prince said two "miracle donors" came through at the last minute, Kevin Colbert and Ed Homewood, one of Prince's former professbrs at Chicago's Harold Washington College.

"Chicago was not nice to King when he was here. People threw stones, hit him on the head, knocked him down," Homewood, who. is white, said from his Chicago home Monday. "So I think it's appropriate that it should be a Chicago initiative to help rebuild those churches that burned. "King said all we needed to do to end violence and war and aggression was simply to love other people.

And he was right." i "'J 4 li 1 1 a Stonewall Jackson. They are now honored on the Friday before King Day, giving state employees a four- Bush honors hell listen to HOUSTON (AP) Presidentelect Bush celebrated Martin Luther King Jr. for seeing "the image of God in everyone" and, in a Monday commemoration of the civil rights hero, promised wary black Americans: "My job will be to listen not only to the successful, but also to the suffering." The formgP'Republican governor of Texas, who won a dismal 5 percent of black votes in his home state and one in nine took a brief break from preparations forhis. Inaugural! activities to reach out to minorities on the King holiday; "I will remember the promise etched in this day," Bush said at the predominantly black and Hispanic Kelso Elementary School, which was closed for the federal holiday. "Dr.

King's dream placed demands on each of us." Bush cast education reform as his own civil rights mission and said equal opportunity eludes students in bad schools. "The dream of equality is empty without excellent schools schools that stress reading and discipline and character and decency. That goal will take presidential leadership Bush said. "It is a goal we will Work endlessly to achieve." Bush has pledged that his first priority after being sworn in Saturday will be congressional passage of his voucher plan to take government money away from consistently failing public schools and give the funds to parents to send their children elsewhere, including private or religious schools. On Monday, Bush saluted King, who was assassinated in 1968 when Bush was a senior at Yale University, for a faith-based "passion for justice" that recognized "the image of God in everyone." "As president, my job will be to listen not only to the but also to the suffering to work PRI'SS PHOTO Ryan Simas, left, and Derrick Prince, right, part of self-named "Dream Team" from join hands during a break in their painting project as part of a rebuilding at the new home of a black church Monday in Tallahassee, Sixteen Chicago-based volunteers began a weeklong effort to rebuild the new home of Faith Christian Fellowship Center burned down five years ago.

This marks the fifth annual trip by the group to rebuild churches destroyed by arsonists, timed to coincide with Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Museum of the Confederacy; in. Richmond and great-grandson pf the Civil War general. at Kelso Elementary "signals -he 'understands the importance of this day to you and to me that he, understands the character that Martin Luther King To get there, Bush's limousine rocked through the rutted streets of a neighborhood of rundown houses, metal fences and littered ditches.

Striding into the gym five min; utes before the program was, scheduled to begin, Bush spoke foe, 12 minutes and remained, at the, school for less than one hour. Returning by charter flight Jo his rancluin Crawford, Bush settled back into the final preparations for his moveto! Washington and several dayspf inaugural activities. During his campaign, BusTi! turned off many black' voters by speaking at Bob Jones University', which until recently banned interracial dating; refusing to conderah the flying'ofthe Confederate battle flag over the Carolina, Capitol; and opposing a hate crinie measure in Texas. Exit polls Nov. 7 showed black, voters chose Democrat Al Gqre.

over Bush by a 9-to-l margin, he lowest jnark for a Republican presidential candidate since Barry. Goldwaterinl964. By better than a 2-to-l margin, most blacks believe they will lose influence under Bush, a Pew( Research Center poll this showed. And a CNN-USA Today poll last month showed less than, a quarter of blacks thought Bush would work hard to address interests. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer, said Bush's needed repair work, with black Amef icans did not drive his King holiday schedule.

"If President-elect Bush had won with 75 percent of African-American vote, he would be going to this event in all cases to commemorate the life of Dr. King," Fleischer told national holiday honoring King: Smith's protest began when ilje Lorraine was closed to be remp4-eled as the museum. A former worker at the Lorraine, she was its last resident. She had to be hauled out by sheriffs deputies. Rather than accept the eyiction, she started her protest.

"I just can't stop what rnf doing," said Smith, who is about 50. J7 Qarv SwHrinim Bob Can Financial Consultant Financial Consultant AGFhwirris Membw SIPC 2000 A. 6. Edwards Sons, Ync" allowed to vote or having their votes thrown out in the 2000 Many blacks believe Vice President Al Gore won the election, McMillan said, and President-elect George W. Bush's eventual victory "is a hard pill to swallow." In keeping with the philosophy of the slain civil rights leader who would have turned 72 Monday, McMillan said forgiveness can bridge what could be a growing racial divide resulting from the election.

"We have to turn the other cheek. A wrong was done to us, but two wrongs don't make a right," McMillan, said. McMillan works for the state of Florida, supervising prisoners on work release. The black man who burned the church was sent to jail, then assigned to Macmlllan when he went on work-release, McMillan said. "I had to see him every day go out and come in," said the pastor of the congregation of about 150 mostly black members.

McMillan said he learned of the construction program while ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTO President-elect Bush speaks at Kelso Elementary School to mark the holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Monday in Houston. toward a nation that respects the dignity of every single life," he said. President Clinton, meanwhile, marked the King holiday by saying he hopes America will become a place where the quest for common humanity outweighs racial, ethnic and cultural differences. "If I could leave America with one wish as I depart office, it would be that we become more the 'One America' that we know we ought to be," Clinton told a crowd of about 900 at the University of the District of Columbia.

At Bush's side in the stuffy elementary school gymnasium, whose 100 invited guests barely outnumbered the reporters, was Education Secretary-designate Rod Paige, the black chief of Houston's school district. Paige told students, "parents and teachers that Bush's appearance and tried to pull her signs away from them. Smith was taken into custody but police did not immediately say whether she was placed in jail. While the museum is widely considered a jewel for downtown Memphis, Smith calls it a tourist trap that distorts King's legacy. The museum draws more than 125,000 visitors a year and is packed each January on the Police arrest protester who lias stood ground at National Civil Rights Museum for 13 years $78,000 in discrimination case MEMPHIS, Tenn.

(AP) A woman who has demonstrated for .13 years outside the National Civil Rights Museum, urging passers-by to boycott the exhibit, was arrested by police Monday in her latest battle against the Fandmark. Jacqueline Smith launched her one-woman protest at the site of Martin Luther King assassination when work to preate the museum began, telling anyone who would listen that the former Lorraine Motel, where she once lived, should be a homeless shelter, a medical clinic for the poor or a senior citizens center. On Monday, Smith was charged with disorderly conduct for allegedly resisting police who tried to' remove protest signs she had draped over, traffic signs near the museum, where construction for an expansion project'has closed part of the street 'Police officer G. Terry-Cook said Smith shouted at the officers After investigating, Department of Housing and Urban Development officials determined that Timmons lied about the house already being rented. In January 2000, HUD charged the Tinflnons with discrimination under the terms of the Fair Housing Act.

The case was heard in June by William Cregar, a HUD administrative law judge in Chicago. On Nov. 16, Cregar ordered the Timmons to pay $63,850 to the Wootons; $10,000 in civil penalties to HUD; and in damages to the Homewood-based South Suburban Housing Center, a fair housing organization that investigated the case. The judge's ruling became final on Dec. 16, after which time the Timmons had 30 days to appeal, which they did not.

Cuomo, who is wrapping up his stint in the Clinton administration, noted that the Fair Housing Act was passed just days after King's assassination 'in April 1968. "Dr. King knew that discrimination that comes with a smile is just as common and just as insidious as more blatant forms of discrimination," Cuomo said. PALOS HILLS (AP) A suburban Chicago couple has been ordered to pay $78,000 in damages and fines for refusing to rent a house to a white couple after learning that their son was black, U.S. Housing Secretary Andrew Cuomo announced in a Martin Luther King Day speech Monday.

Cuomo, who gave his speech in Philadelphia, said the judgment against Cecil and Patricia TJmmons of Palos Hills stemmed from a complaint that Darlene and Ronald Wooton filed in May 1998. The Wootons claim that the Timmons agreed to rgnt them a home but reneged on the deal when they later met the Wooton's then 6-year-old son, Who The Wootons claim that Cecil Timmons stared at their son "with his mouth wide open," according to a statement issued Monday. Darlene Wooton said she asked Timmons if it was a problem that her son was 'black. She said he said "no," then excused himself, saying he had to get his wife. She said he then returned and told the Wootons qiat his wife had-already rented the house to someone else without his knowledge.

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