Highland Park Democratic Leader Reflects on Dr. King's Legacy

Growing up as a young African-American in South-Central Los Angeles in 1960s, President of the Northeast Democratic Club Al Strange said he didn't realize how wide the racial divide was in America.

He said it wasn't until he traveled to Fort Benning, GA, in 1966 as a member of the United States Army that he encountered racism, first hand.

"I grew up in Los Angeles, which at the time was sort of, de-facto segregated," he said. "It wasn't until I went down south that I realized what it meant to be black in America. In the South, they told you who you were, what your place was, where you belonged."

During those difficult days, the words of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who would have turned 81 on Saturday, resonated with Strange.

"He made us more aware of what we should be doing in our communities, the importance of becoming educated, politically active," Strange said.

After finishing his commitment to the Army in 1968, the same year that Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Strange said he continued to listen to and be inspired by Dr. King's words.

"When I would visit my mother-in-law in San Diego, she had all his speeches on record, and it was really nice to listen to those directly. I loved being able to hear his speeches. It was inspiration," he said.

Now in his third term as the president of the Northeast Democratic Club, the longtime Highland Park resident said the organization is, in may ways, a realization of Dr. King's dream, expressed in his famous 1960 "I Have a Dream" speech.

"He talked about, one day, black children and white children playing together and seeing each other not as colors, but as people," he said. "The Democratic Club has always had a diverse board. That's what I look at, when people get to understand each other, they get to understand each other's cultures. And when they get to understand each other's cultures, they get to understand eater other as individuals."

Nearly 50 years after Dr. King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech, Strange said he's witnessed amazing progress in America, including the 2008 election of President Barack Obama.

However, he said he still sees room from growth, which only comes from education.

"I still think there's always going to be a racial divide as long as there are those who want to keep race as a hold card," he said. "Nobody comes into this world a racist, it's a learned behavior, it's something that's taught by people who want a divisiveness."