King Day parade reflects diversity
By Vicki Viotti
Advertiser Staff Writer
Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebrations elsewhere might be bigger, said Marsha Joyner, though it's hard to imagine one more colorful than the one Honolulu held yesterday.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser
"I was in Baltimore in 1999," said Joyner, a past president of the state's King coalition, which plans the holiday events that began Sunday with the ringing of the Nagasaki Peace Bell near City Hall. "They had a huge breakfast with all of the right people there, the governor and everyone.
Spectators on Ala Moana Boulevard enjoy the "Unity Rally" marking Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which led to a party at Kapi'olani Park featuring music, crafts and rides.
"But there was nothing like this, nothing for the people," she said, surveying the crowd at Kapi'olani Park: the gospel choirs, the kids on the rides and rock-climbing wall, the picnickers and the protesters.
The "Unity Rally," as it's called, is more of a carnival, one that follows a parade of groups outfitted for various causes and political agendas.
Democrats and Republicans marched from Magic Island to Kapi'olani Park yesterday morning in honor of King and his work for civil rights; so did anti-war activists and military marching bands. Among the 80 units that signed on to participate was a painted pickup truck representing Refuse & Resist Hawai'i and other social-justice groups, painted with slogans such as "Stop Attacks on Immigrants."
There were also beauty queens and a Brazilian dance troupe ablaze in tinsel skirts and feather boas, Hare Krishnas and Girl Scouts, all making their way to the payoff at the far end of Kalakaua Avenue: the big party with roughly 1,000 in attendance, light on speeches and heavy on the music, amusements, food and crafts.
In the front row facing the bandstand sat Naomi and Warren Williams, "snowbirds" who yearly flee their chilly home in Cleveland to spend two months in Hawai'i.
Warren Williams remembers King as an electrifying speaker from rallies he attended as a youth in Cleveland.
"He was quite impressive," he said. "There was always a crowd around him."
His wife reflected on what makes King Day in Hawai'i distinct from celebrations at home.
"You have all these different people and cultures, and that's what he was about, all people coming together as one," she said.
Peace activists Frances and Val Viglielmo were impressed by the turnout at the bell-ringing service Sunday night. It's a heart-warming moment for him each year, Val Viglielmo said, partly because he was a translator and helped to arrange with survivors of the Nagasaki atomic bomb for the bell's installation here.
"We love the linking of the Martin Luther King Day celebration with the anti-nuclear movement," he said.
Mostly, said Joyner, people love having a reason to spend a pleasant day with family and friends.
"We have our solemn moments, too," she said. "Last night was solemn. Today, it's a party.
"Nowhere else in the U.S. is the weather this wonderful," she added, notwithstanding the brief sprinkling of rain as the rally got under way. "To have this kind of turnout, to have family and friends being proud of their part in the whole. ... It's absolutely wonderful to see."
Reach Vicki Viotti at vviotti@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8053.
