ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, January 21, 1997 TAG: 9701210082
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LESLIE TAYLOR STAFF WRITER
Ten-year-old Schanna Gonzalez didn't participate in Monday's March for Justice, and sit through the nearly two-hour church service that followed, just because school was closed for the Lee-Jackson-King Day holiday.
In a book borrowed from her school library last year, she had read of Martin Luther King's nonviolent struggle for civil rights, of his 1968 assassination on the balcony of a Memphis motel.
"I think everybody should appreciate what he did every single day, the way he helped us," said Schanna, a fifth-grader at Fairview Elementary School in Roanoke. "Some people come here just to be coming here and don't think about what he did."
Schanna listened as her grandfather, the Rev. Lenord Hines, delivered a rousing invocation at the service in St. Paul United Methodist Church at Gilmer Avenue and Fifth Street in Northwest Roanoke. Schanna and about 50 others had come there - most of them on foot - from the Poff Federal Building in downtown Roanoke.
She listened as the voices of the William Fleming High School Gospel Choir filled the church, clear strong voices that sent shivers down the spine and straight through to the toes.
And at the service's closing, she stood up, crossed one arm over the other and grabbed the hands of those standing to her left and right.
"Oh deep in my heart, I do believe," she sang. "We shall overcome, someday."
The march and service were sponsored by the Roanoke Chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a national organization co-founded by King. Chapter President Perneller Chubb-Wilson said the group intentionally focused the service on youth.
"I want us all to take more interest and pride in our children," said Chubb-Wilson, who was moved to tears near the end of the service. "We in Roanoke need to take more time with our children, teach our children what love is."
The SCLC honored outstanding seniors from Patrick Henry and William Fleming high schools with Martin Luther King Jr. certificates, and showcased the talents of young people, including a slightly nervous Stuart Brown of Addison Middle Magnet School, who brought the crowd to its feet with a recitation of King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
And the SCLC invited as keynote speaker a woman who has served as an advocate and mentor to young people. Barbara Patterson - an alumna of the old Lucy Addison High School and founder of the International Association of Black Professionals in International Affairs - called them "our future."
"As the 21st century approaches, I believe Dr. King's message would be that in order to make effective changes in our community and personal lives, we must take a more active responsibility for self - not the mayor, not the school principal, not the teacher, not the doctor, not the minister, not the social worker, but self," Patterson said.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS STAFF. Fifth Street Northwestby CNBbecame a parade ground for about 15 minutes as marchers paraded from
the Poff Federal Building to St. Paul United Methodist Church to
celebrate Martin Luther King Day. The March for Justice began at
noon, followed by a service at the church. Jack Mills with the SCLC
rides with Jennifer Lewis, 15, of Patrick Henry High School on the
front of the car. color.