This coming Monday is Martin Luther King Day, and many residents remember the famed civil rights leader speaking right here in the West Valley about racism and integration.
In 1961, two years before his famed “I have a dream” speech, King spoke to Woodland Hills Community Church and Canoga Park High School.
The church’s pastor, Reverend Fred Doty, had read King’s book Stride Toward Freedom, The Montgomery Bus Boycott Story, and just up and called him. For a fee of $500 the church sponsored his visit to California. Tickets to the event were sold for $1.50.
At that time the valley was segregated. Blacks and Asians could not buy or rent homes in the suburbs, backed by Prop 14 that denied minorities equal access to housing.
A copy of his speech, entitled “The Future of Integration,” was given to the pastor and was put away in a box, only discovered by church historian Lou Benedict in 2000.
In the midst of the nation’s immigration crisis, his words still ring true today. An excerpt reads, “Men often hate each other because they fear each other. They fear each other because they don’t know each other. They don’t know each other because they are separate from each other.”
Woodland Hills Community Church will hold a special service this coming Sunday, January 18, at 10 am. The gospel worship will be led by Tamyra Gray and Bryan Windom and accompanied by Wayne Wilkins. Gerald C. Rivers will be the voice of the late Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. A reception will follow in Harter Hall. The church is l7at 21338 Dumetz Road. Everyone is welcome.
