What happened in the 1960s still is vital to children today, even if they don’t know it, says Henry Slayton.
“We must not let our kids forget what happened in the 1960s so that they can enjoy all the freedoms that they do now,” said Mr. Slayton, a Vietnam War veteran who graduated high school in 1966, when blacks and whites still attended segregated schools.
To reinforce his belief that the past influences the present, Mr. Slayton, as well as hundreds of Chattanooga residents – young and old – walked Monday in the Unity Group’s Memorial March to honor slain civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. The event is a 40-year tradition that local residents say is too important to miss.
“The story has to be told,” said Quenston Coleman, chairman of the Martin Luther King Day celebration. “The children who are seniors in high school now were born 30 years after Dr. King died. They have no idea of who he is, except what they’ve seen in pictures and advertisements.”