Still more to do

Forty years after Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, North Carolinians fight for his ideals of freedom and equality.

Four decades ago, black Americans were still fighting for basic civil rights in schools, housing and the work force. Now, a black man has a legitimate shot at the White House, and black children can aspire to attend Harvard or Yale, to lead major companies, to live in the nation's most exclusive neighborhoods.

Today, on the holiday commemorating the birth of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the equality he fought for has, in many ways, come to pass. The law now guarantees that black children will never face the kind of discrimination King railed against.

At the same time, black men are imprisoned more than any other group. Drugs and violence ravage many black communities. And as a whole, blacks are still sicker, poorer and less educated than whites.

The News & Observer's Kristin Collins talked with four veterans of the civil rights movement about how far they feel blacks have come in the 40 years since King's assassination in Memphis, and how far they still have to go.

How far have we really come?

Opportunities are being ignored, young people are ignorant of civil rights struggles and a veiled racism persists, these North Carolinians say. But there is progress -- a diverse field of presidential candidates and today's vast opportunities are reason for hope, they say.

David Prince: Opportunity is in reach

David Prince was a freshman at the segregated Apex Consolidated School in April 1968 when King was fatally shot while he stood on a hotel balcony in Memphis, Tenn.

In the years since, Prince has watched King's "dream" play out in his life.

A graduate of Shaw University, Prince, 54, works for the state Department of Health and Human Services. He lives with his wife and sons in an integrated middle-class neighborhood in Raleigh.

One of his sons graduated from college and works for the city of Raleigh, and the other is a junior at N.C. Central University in Durham.

"Any African-American has the opportunity to succeed in the United States of America," Prince says. "We have the opportunity."

However, as an advocate who helps teens on the edge, he knows that many aren't taking that opportunity. He has spent 20 years dealing with the children of absent fathers, teens lured into street life, families torn apart by drugs and killing.

This past weekend, at the city's Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration, he lit candles for the 70 people who died violently in the Triangle last year. Most of them, he said, were young black men.

For many of those, he said, King's dream was long ago dashed and forgotten. But Prince said he refuses to give up hope for a time when more young blacks will see the opportunities that await them. He says he will keep working in the face of great odds, just as King did.

"I've been working for over 20 years to keep Dr. King's dream alive," Prince said. "All I can do is continue trying to help."

Mary E. Perry: Instilling King's values

In the late 1960s, Mary Perry's request was almost subversive: She wanted blacks in her hometown of Wendell to register and vote.

Even so, she says, it was easier then than it is now to get African-Americans to the polls.

After four decades as an outspoken black leader in rural eastern Wake County, Perry says she sees King's dream slipping further and further away.

"The younger generation has not been through the struggle," Perry said. "The parents aren't teaching their children."

Perry doesn't like to reveal her age, but she was out of college when she traveled to the March on Washington in 1963. And shortly after returning, she became head of the Wendell branch of the NAACP -- a post she held until three years ago.