HARRISON — About 300 people marched through downtown Harrison on Tuesday night in a symbolic funeral procession to bury racial bias and hatred.
Erin Knight, 12, of North Little Rock, and Kaylen Smith, 13, of Little Rock, led the procession carrying signs that read “I Am a Man.”
Similar signs were carried by striking Memphis sanitation workers in 1968, signifying the right of all men to be treated equally. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated while on a trip to Memphis to show his support for those on strike.
The group walked four blocks from the Lyric Theater to Fire Station No. 1, where they held what they called a funeral for racism and hatred. They buried a casket facedown next to a headstone that read in part: “Here lies the stigma of racism that has burdened Harrison’s past.”
Then a vigil was held for King in front of the Harrison City Hall. It was the first time that the Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. Commission held the vigil outside Little Rock. For the past six years, the vigil has been on the steps of the state Capitol around the anniversary of King’s death, which was on April 4, 1968.
DuShun Scarbrough, executive director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission, said there was a great turnout Tuesday.
“Truly amazing! Right here in Harrison. … A very diverse crowd came out to celebrate our sixth annual vigil to show that Dr. King’s legacy still lives on,” he said. “We have folks here who are outstanding in exemplifying his noble tenets and legacy.”
The march began after a musical event at the Lyric Theater.
The Harrison High School Band and drum corps from Hall High School in Little Rock performed during the march. The color guard from the Cass Jobs Center in Franklin County served as symbolic pallbearers. Gov. Mike Beebe’s deputy chief of staff, Lamar Davis, participated in the march and the vigil, along with other dignitaries.
During Tuesday’s march, the Rev. Cecil Gibson - a teacher at North Little Rock Academy - recited from four of King’s speeches, starting with what is known as King’s “mountaintop speech.” It was the speech King gave at Mason Temple in Memphis the night before his death.
“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life,” said Gibson, quoting King. “Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land. So I’m happy, tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”
A group of students from Pine Bluff said the Harrison march was “great.”
“We get along,” said David Strickland, 14, a student at Robert F. Moorehead Middle School in Pine Bluff. “Everybody gets along now with each other.”
Harrison has had a history of racial turmoil. Two raceriots in 1905 and 1909 forced almost all black residents from the city. Now, about 34 of Harrison’s 12,943 residents are black.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Klan - one of several Klan groups in the U.S. - is based 15 miles east of Harrison in Zinc. Thom Robb is national director of the Knights.
About 4 p.m. Tuesday, Scarbrough ran into Robb in the restaurant of the Hotel Seville in Harrison. The two agreed to answer some questions from reporters. Robb was asked about references he has made to “white genocide.”
“We are concerned about white genocide,” said Robb. “The guilt trip being put upon white kids for nothing more than loving who they are, loving their heritage, loving their culture. … The attitude that they have to somehow continually always and forever apologize for something thathappened 100 years ago.”
At that point, Scarbrough interrupted Robb, saying he was through with the impromptu news conference, and Scarbrough and his group left the restaurant.
Scarbrough said he got the idea for the mock funeral after hearing on March 12 that a second billboard may go up in Harrison with a message about race. In October, a billboard with the message “Anti-Racist Is A Code Word For Anti-White” was posted along Harrison’s busy U.S.62/65 bypass.
In March, a billboard with an image of a white family was placed under that one reading, “Welcome to Harrison. Beautiful town. Beautiful people. No wrong exits. No bad neighborhoods.”
No one has claimed responsibility for the billboards.
Harrison’s Community Task Force on Race Relations responded to the October billboard with a “Love Your Neighbor” campaign, and Mayor Jeff Crockett donated space on two billboardshe owns in Harrison for that counter-message. Task force billboards and T-shirts include the King quote “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
Crockett said it’s a small, vocal group in the Harrison area that keeps causing trouble there.
Hundreds of students from across Arkansas traveled to Harrison by school bus Tuesday to participate in the vigil and a Nonviolence Youth Summit that will take place today at North Arkansas Community College. It’s sponsored by the state King Commission and the Arkansas Department of Human Services. A similar conference was held in Harrison in 2012.
Local businesses donated toward the funeral and vigil.
The casket was made by Norm Friar, who owns Friar’s Funeral Casket of Harrison. Made of eastern cedar and pine, it was 59 inches long, 18 inches wide and 6 inches deep, he said.
On the top of the casket were two clasped hands carved from wood - one black and one white. The hands were part of a plaque that was removed and given to Scarbrough before the burial.
Underneath the removable plaque was a heart of stone in the top of the casket.
Eldon Roberts, owner of Hart Monument Co. in Harrison, donated the 30-by-12-inch headstone.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 04/02/2014