Jeff Greene stood at the confluence of Monsarrat and Kalakaua avenues yesterday watching a Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade full of politicians, unions and anti-war demonstrators that was unlike the King Day parades he grew up with in Atlanta.

"This is way different," said Greene, who moved to 'Ewa Beach to work as a civilian logistics management specialist for the Army. "You can't compare the two. But the spirit of civil rights is here. The spirit of unity is here."

Greene, 40, wore a black T-shirt with the phrase "African Americans United for Life" on the back in support of African-American bone marrow donations. He watched the 20th anniversary King Day Parade with his India-born wife and their 6-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter.

"It's important for them to see all of the different cultures we have," Greene said.

Deloris Hairston wore a black T-shirt with a life-sized photo of King on the front. On the back was the King phrase, "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere."

Hairston now teaches juniors and seniors at Wai'anae High School to be teachers themselves but grew up in Chicago, where black churches dominated the King Day parade.

"Here," she said, "the whole city's involved."

And that works, too, as a way of celebrating King's birthday, Hairston said.

"He was for everyone," she said.

Yesterday's parade included a mix of Hawaiian and Filipino groups, military color guards, the Royal Hawaiian Band, various unions, churches and peace groups.

The grand marshall was Army Maj. Gen. W. Montague Winfield, the great-grandson of a Virginia slave, who served as the first commanding general of the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in Hawai'i.

Winfield is now commanding general of the Army's Cadet Command at Fort Monroe, Va., which produces nearly two-thirds of all Army officers.

But for every soldier and Junior Reserve Office Training Corps cadet, there seemed to be twice as many pro-peace proponents and anti-war demonstrators who carried peace signs or placards that read, "Impeach Bush-Cheney" and "Would MLK Invade Iraq?"

There were trolleys, buses, Mustang convertibles, conch shells and brass bands.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann marched down Waikiki's Kalakaua Avenue alongside members of the United Public Workers union, in front of a sparkling garbage truck.

Hannemann later told hundreds of people gathered at the Kapi'olani Park Bandstand that his place in the parade was meant to commemorate King's support of striking African-American sanitation workers in Memphis, Tenn., shortly before he was assassinated in that city on April 4, 1968.

"Dr. King went to Memphis to speak out about injustice," Hannemann said. "... His ideas embody what Hawai'i is all about."

But 40 years after King's assassination, Hannemann said events like yesterday's are necessary "so we never forget the things that Dr. King stood for. ... The fight is not over."

Reach Dan Nakaso at dnakaso@honoluluadvertiser.com.