By Adam Pincus
About 50 people attended the subdued event to recall the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at the Langston Hughes Library and Cultural Center at 100-01 Northern Blvd. in Corona.The speakers included Borough President Helen Marshall and state Assemblyman Jeffrion Aubry (D-Corona).State Sen. John Sabini (D-Jackson Heights) and City Councilman Hiram Monserrate (D-Corona) also attended the event.Marshall, who represented Corona in the City Council, said she was indebted to King's legacy, which helped her to become the first black elected official to serve in her position in Queens. “He built this country to what it is today,” she said, describing him as “the general” for the civil rights movement.She also recalled the three students who were killed during Freedom Summer, including 20-year-old Andrew Goodman, a Queens College anthropology student, who rode down as Freedom Riders in 1964. Goodman, James Chaney and Michael Schwerner were murdered in Mississippi that year.Marshall recalled that during the same year she made a meal for some of the students who had recently returned from the protests in the South, but hardly anyone ate the food.”I held a reception at my house for the Freedom Riders. I made a nice spread,” she said. “But they couldn't eat anything because their bodies has been beaten.”Aubry asked the audience to think of King when they listened to President George Bush's speech later in the week. He compared Bush's request for more than 20,000 additional troops in Iraq with King's fundamental calls for peaceful resistance in the face of bombings and beatings.”When facing that, he maintained the position that non-violence and love will transcend violence. It is so easy to pick up a gun,” Aubry said.Reach reporter Adam Pincus by e-mail at news@timesledger.com or by phone at 718-229-0300, Ext. 154.
