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Press of AC

Date: Thursday, November 15, 2001
Section: Region
Edition: All
Page: A1
Byline: By MARK TYLER Staff Writer

CAPTION:
This is a story about the opening of the Civil Rights Garden. We'll do an update on it's progress and advance it's opening on November 14, 2001

The struggle continues was a theme repeated Wednesday at the opening of
the Civil Rights Garden at the Carnegie Library.
It was a message brought to state, county and local leaders gathered for
the monument's opening by Benjamin L. Hooks, a former president of the
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and the Rev.
Fred Shuttlesworth, co-founder of the Southern Christian Leadership
Conference, an organization that Martin Luther King Jr. worked with
extensively.
Hooks was jovial at times as he addressed the standing-room-only crowd
packed into a large white tent along Pacific and Mount Vernon avenues near
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. But his message was clear.
"The problem of the 21st century will be the problem of diversity," Hooks
said. "There are some bad folk in every race. There are some good folk in
every race."
Hooks, who served the nation's oldest civil rights organization from 1978
to 1993, said that everyone has a responsibility to try to make the world
a better place and advance the causes of freedom and justice.
"What I can do, I will do and do the best that I can," Hooks said. "We
have to learn to walk together. We have to learn to pray together. Some
came over in slave ships and some came over on the Mayflower. But we're
all in the same boat now."
Officials pointed out that the garden is the first Civil Rights monument
to open in this century and may be the only one in a state that fought for
the union in the Civil War. Among them were James L. Usry, the city's
first black mayor, former longtime local NAACP President Pierre
Hollingsworth, New Jersey NAACP President William Rutherford, state Sen.
William Gormley, Assemblyman Frank Blee, Atlantic County Executive Dennis
Levinson and Mayor-elect Lorenzo Langford. Several school children also
were on hand for the ceremony, which was at least two years in the making.
Absent was Mayor James Whelan, who was listed on the program for remarks
and sits on the CRDA board, which initiated the $1.7 million project.
"It's a slap in the face to the community he still represents," said
Council President Ernest Coursey, who represents the 3rd Ward where the
garden is located.
Whelan, who lost his re-election bid on the strength of absentee ballots,
said Wednesday evening that it's time for him to "take a lower profile."
"You're not called a lame duck for nothing," Whelan said. "I was very much
a part of developing (the garden) and it's something I'm proud of, but
again it's time for me to take a lower profile. I thought the campaign was
over. I don't see the need for that kind of rhetoric."
Others who did attend were Atlantic City Council at-large-elect members
Eugene Robinson, who joined the movement a year before Dr. King by
integrating Little League baseball, and Cassandra McCall Clark. Numerous
Casino Reinvestment Development Authority officials, current local NAACP
Chapter President William Marsh, and attorney Jim Cooper, chairman of the
National Conference for Community and Justice, also were on hand.
During the ceremonies, Shuttlesworth, deemed in 1961 "the man most feared
by the Southern racist," called the crowd's attention to two other
historic gardens.
"Life for all of us started in a beautiful garden, perfect, and we ought
to seek after that," Shuttlesworth said of the Garden of Eden. "It was
contaminated by sin."
Humanity reached another milestone in the Garden of Gethsemane, as Jesus
Christ prayed for all mankind, he said.
"In Atlantic City, there is another garden," Shuttlesworth said. "I hope
all of Atlantic City and all of the people around visit it and become
dedicated to the unfinished task of freedom, justice and brotherhood."
The garden is accented by 11 black African granite columns that gradually
ascend toward the heavens inscribed with reminders of the movement. A
large bronze bell is set in the middle of the garden's fountain.
"The bell was one of the first images we came up with," said artist Larry
Kirkland who designed the garden. "Dr. King was a religious man and a bell
is a religious symbol. It also serves as a clarion."
Langford said projects such as the garden can help bridge the gap between
the resort's young people and its adults.
"There is no question that we need to do more to celebrate the legacy of
African Americans and that will definitely be a focus of my
administration," Langford said.

(Staff writer Jeremy Olshan contributed to this report.)

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