KING DAY MARCHERS SAY KEEP THE FAITH.

Byline: Kermit Pattison Daily News Staff Writer

Rallying to defend three decades of gains in affirmative action and civil rights, more than 600 people gathered Monday to honor the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.

"It's kind of like we're back in the 1960s," said Lowell Pumphrey, one of the organizers of the event. "I see a lot of racial tension in the schools and on TV in the news. I don't know why we're going backward when we have come so far."

In the 10th annual Ventura County march and rally to celebrate the birthday of the slain civil rights leader, organizers focused on interpreting King's message in light of today's debate on affirmative action. They warned that the fruits of King's struggle for nonviolent change and unity of all races are under assault by those who want to abolish affirmative action programs.

"It's making people cognizant of what is happening with affirmative action," said Oxnard City Councilman Bedford Pinkard, chairman of the committee that organized the event. "I know there are a lot of people who would like to see us go back to those pre-civil rights days."

For many of those who lived through the years of segregated restaurants and schools, and then the turbulent years of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, the holiday presented an opportunity to teach today's young people about the sacrifices of past generations.

"It's an education for the kids," Pinkard said. "Just yesterday I was sitting there with my grandkids watching a movie about King and they couldn't really understand. They said, 'Was Dr. King really killed?' They didn't understand about segregation. They didn't understand that back then you couldn't go into a McDonald's like we can now. We need to not forget it used to be different."

The day began with a short march beginning in downtown Oxnard. Bracing against an early morning chill, hundreds of people gathered in Plaza Park and bowed their heads in a short prayer before heading down the street with the Oxnard High School marching band leading the way.

Anthony and Bernice Stinson were there hoping to imbue their 3-year-old and 6-year-old sons with healthy pride in their heritage, and respect for all people.

"It's just to get some togetherness, peace and unity," Anthony Stinson said, "and to remember what Dr. King did."

In the middle of the crowd, Ruth Berry marched close to her two teen-age sons. She said the holiday shows there is hope for racial unity, and reinforces the need to keep fighting to overcome prejudice.

"You truly can overcome a lot of adversity," Berry said. "You have to stick with it. It truly lets you know that despite the people who want to keep a certain group down, someday that's going to get old and stop."

Parents pushed babies in carriages or herded along small children. Some marchers pushed wheelchairs of elderly marchers who were too frail to walk.

One 88-year-old man leaned back in his wheelchair and called to his son pushing him, "What kind of a march do you call this?"

His son leaned down to his father's ear. "It's Martin Luther King's birthday, Pop," he said, drawing a nod from the older man.

Along the march route, the Oxnard High band played pulsing marching tunes. Onlookers gathered in front yards and doorsteps to watch the stream of people as they passed by.

"It's to show people what King did in his lifetime," said Henry Davis, an Alabama-born maintenance mechanic who now lives in Oxnard. "Right now it seems we're letting it slip away, but we can't do that.

"Today a lot of people seem to think what he did is over," Davis said. "He broke the ice, but we still need to keep going. A lot of people have let their guard down. We all have to unite."

The walk ended at the Oxnard Community Center, where hundreds filled an auditorium to listen to speeches by local dignitaries, to see awards presented to students and senior citizens, and to sing "Lift Every Voice" and "We Shall Overcome."

In her keynote speech, D. Diane Miller, president of the Women's Legislative Coalition in Los Angeles, urged the audience to keep King's dream alive. She urged women and racial minorities to unite to fend off the backlash against affirmative action by what she called angry white males anxious about shrinking economic opportunity.

"This really is not about race," Miller said. "Affirmative action is all about money and power. That's the only thing that really is colorblind. The real color of affirmative action is green.

"We now must take his dream and turn it into a living vision," she said.

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Photo (1--ran in SAC only) After a prayer in Plaza Park, hundreds honor the birthday of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. with a march in Oxnard on Monday. (2--ran in CONEJO and SIMI only--color) Keith Smith from the Church for the Nations raises his arm as he joins a prayer before the Martin Luther King Jr. march Monday in Oxnard. (3--ran in CONEJO and SIMI only) Ron and Donna Hertz of Ventura share their message at the march. (4--ran in SIMI and CONEJO only) In Oxnard, London Neal, 8, quietly remembers one of her heroes from the past, Martin Luther King Jr. Andy Holzman/Special to the Daily News