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For some like Priscilla Jere, Monday’s ride on the Celebration Train to honor the life and legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. took on a new sense of urgency in the current political climate.
Jere, who’s lived in San Jose for 30 years and is originally from Zambia, said she rode the train for the first time because she feels the country is becoming more divisive, and she wanted to take a “more active stance.”
“I feel like I am part of a force for good,” said Jere, who was happy to see people of many ethnicities, backgrounds and ages taking part in the celebration.
Thousands of people in the Bay Area remembered the civil rights leader Monday by riding the Celebration Train from San Jose to San Francisco.
The 54-mile Caltrain ride up the Peninsula honored King and the march hundreds made from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama in 1965 to call attention to ongoing civil rights abuses in the nation and the need to protect voting rights for African-Americans.
Riders said they felt compelled to join the festivities as a way to celebrate King, and to show support for the effort toward equality.
“To me, this represents love, represents a dream,” said Diane Joiner of San Jose, who rode the train with her 90-year-old mother, Lois Hebbert.
“He was a pioneer of freedom, love, togetherness,” Joiner said of King. “There will never be another like him, and thank God he is in our history books.”
The train ride was lively, filled with the sounds of the New Life Fellowship Praise Team, who walked through the cars singing songs and gospels, and lifting passenger spirits. Caltrain officials also organized King trivia and games.
Several riders said that while King’s message lives on today, racial, economic and social equality in America have not advanced far enough in the decades after his assassination, and more needs to be done to unify the nation.
The country is “exactly where we were” when he died, Jacq Jurado, of San Jose, said Monday on the San Francisco Caltrain platform. She rode the train for the first time with her husband, Randy, and her two kids, Charleigh, 8, and Sean, 5.
“You are doomed to repeat history until you get it right,” she said.
She said she brought her kids so they can learn more about their cultures, and about the struggles of their grandparents and great-grandparents so they could have more opportunity.
The train ride was free, put on by the Northern California Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Foundation, or NorCalMLK, along with Caltrain. Officials estimated roughly 2,000 people rode the train Monday.
It ran as the Freedom Train for three decades under the guidance of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Association of Santa Clara Valley, similar to others around the nation inspired by the late civil rights activist and King’s wife, Coretta Scott King.
On Monday, the train brought passengers to the Caltrain station at 4th and King streets in San Francisco, where many joined a 1.5-mile march and parade that started at 11 a.m.
The parade and march were led by youth drummers from the San Francisco-based nonprofit Loco Bloco, which promotes Afro-Latino performance art. They sounded off through the city streets, and concluded at Yerba Buena Gardens with more MLK-focused events.
A large crowd gathered on the soggy grass of the gardens under a sunny sky to hear speeches about King from community, faith and city leaders, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and San Francisco Mayor London Breed.
Breed told the crowd that King is “one of our true American heroes,” but much work is still needed to honor his legacy and deal with challenges that “threaten those ideas of unity and equity” King spoke of.
“I know we’re not going to give up until everyone has equal access to health care, until our immigrant community feels like they’re safe and they’re welcome, until we have equal rights for African-Americans,” she said.
“Let us not forget what we’re fighting for,” Breed added.
Eddie Kittrell, 66, of San Francisco, said he came to the park to honor and remember King, who had an impact on him as a young man who had to deal with racism and segregation.
“I understood what he was talking about. …The dogs were put on us, water hoses shot on us, but we were kids, children growing up in that, and I remember a man like him standing up for us,” Kittrell said.
He said King’s core ideals of freedom, justice and equality have not been fully realized.
“We’ve come a long way, but the dream has become a nightmare now,” Kittrell said.
“Racism and so much hatred, it hasn’t gone away. It’s just been camouflaged. It’s still there, but you just got to know how to deal with it when you see it,” Kittrell said. “Just turn the other cheek and keep on walking.”
Nensha Kamara, 28, of Oakland, said that while strides have been made toward equality, there’s “a lot more we can do” to bring King’s vision to fruition and that can be discouraging at times.
“But continuous hope that it can get better is what you need,” she said.
