
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, January 18, 1994                   TAG: 9401180039
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

ON KING DAY, A CALL TO END THE VIOLENCE

The New York Legislature began a special session Monday to consider banning assault weapons, and activists in Ohio marched on Klan leaders' homes, as people around the country marked Martin Luther King Day with a burst of activism.

On the day marking the 65th birthday anniversary of her husband, Coretta Scott King said poverty and injustice do not justify violence and brutality.

In several states, religious, political and community leaders called for tougher gun laws and said it was time for an end to violence.

But racial divisions also were apparent on the day honoring the slain civil rights leader. In New York City, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani told a mostly black audience that he was troubled by reports that many blacks fear him. A black woman shouted at him, "We find you despicable."

Giuliani, who is white, defeated David Dinkins, the city's first black mayor, last year in a bitterly contested election.

In Albany, Gov. Mario Cuomo was interrupted several times by applause when he spoke at a holiday ceremony about banning assault weapons.

Some Americans have turned the weapons into symbols of defiance in their fight against gun control, said Cuomo, who called the Legislature into special session to consider the ban.

In Atlanta, King's widow called on young people to shun violence.

She cited the federal Brady law as an example of recent progress toward ending violence and urged support for legislation to require further controls on handguns and assault weapons.

"No injustice, no matter how great, can excuse even a single act of violence against another human being," King said in her annual "State of the Dream" speech.

In Ohio, activists turned their attention to the Ku Klux Klan, trudging through snow to stage protests against Klansmen in their own neighborhoods, including demonstrations at Klan leaders' homes in Cleveland and Coshocton, about 50 miles east of Columbus. There were no reports of violence or arrests.

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by CNB