The Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., was remembered with a march, snippets of his sermons and speeches, songs and laughter Monday in Austin.

It was also the day Virginia Larsen received the Austin Human Rights Commission's top award.

Cold temperatures hastened the pace for marchers from the Austin Municipal Building to St. Olaf Lutheran Church at mid-morning Monday.

When the marchers entered the sanctuary of the church, music director Neal Erickson greeted them with strains of "We Shall Overcome" from the organ.

The "Day of Hope" events were planned by the Austin Human Rights Commission and Welcome Center.

King, an Baptist minister, was the main leader of the American civil rights movement, during the 1950s and 1960s.

He was the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize recipient for leading non-violent civil rights demonstrations.

He helped form the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to continue the struggle into the very teeth of the United States racial segregationists in the South.

King's "I have a dream" speech in Washington, D.C. in 1963 before 200,000 people combined King's familiar eloquence and passion and defined the moral basis for the American civil rights movement.

The U.S. Supreme Court's desegregation ruling in 1956 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 are a reality, in part, because of King's perseverance.

An assassin's bullet ended King's life at the age of 39.

The Rev. Ron Barnett, senior pastor of St. Olaf Lutheran Church, welcomed the marchers.

Readings were rendered by Priscilla Silvestre-Cotter and Miles Edwards. Georgette Hinkle, Jennifer Edwards, Dan Donnelly and Wayne Goodnature also spoke briefly.

Donnelly, an attorney specializing in defending minorities and immigrants, likened Austin's struggle to deal with new immigrants to that of African-Americans in a white America.

The changes in Austin's cultural makeup are, Donnelly said, "disturbing to some and embraced by others."

He put Austin in the latter category and challenged all new immigrants "not to be afraid to question laws and lawmakers and to let your voice be heard."

Goodnature was the first to bring humor to the Day of Hope's rhetoric. Referring to the single-digit temperatures and gray skies that caused marchers to shiver with cold Monday, Goodnature said there could be another reason King stayed down South and never marched in Minnesota: the weather.

Austin Mayor Bonnie Rietz presented the Austin Human Rights Commission's award to Larsen, a retired community college instructor and well-known activist in Austin.

Recalling Larsen's work to form Amis Austin to help refugees and Access Austin to help the handicapped as well as other community service endeavors, Rietz said the Rev. Kris Wee, an associate pastor at St. Olaf Lutheran Church, described Larsen best.

"She said 'The real essence of Virginia Larsen is service. She really loves helping people' and I believe that to be so true," Rietz said.

Liliana Silvestri-Neilon, director of the Welcome Center, presented the award to Larsen.

The award recipient expressed her appreciation to all and injected humor into her acceptance speech.

Noting that she and Rietz, as well as a handful of others in the Day of Hope audience, were from North Dakota, Larsen suggested that "people from North Dakota constitute a new minority, whose rights we should champion."

Then, Larsen turned serious, saying the pursuit of human rights attracts three kinds of people.

"There are the trailblazers, like Dr. King, who are there in the beginning," she said. "And there are also the cultivators and finally the maintainers."

She challenged the audience to remember the legacy of King and to acknowledge all people coming to Austin in a "welcoming way."

The Martin Luther King Day celebration ended with Barnett leading the audience in remembering a "great, great man" and in singing "Marching in the light of God."

One of the audience members, who was visibly impressed was Randy Bawek, whose voice drowned voices of less fervor.

"I think Martin Luther King Day is just wonderful," he said. "He was one of the greatest men we've every had in our lives. I would rank JFK and Martin Luther King right up there with anybody," he said.

Lee Bonorden can be contacted at 434-2232 or by e-mail at

mailto:lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com