PORTLAND, Maine - Hundreds are gathering at events in Maine today to honor the legacy of slain civil rights leader, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
Former Democratic Congressman Barney Frank, of Massachusetts, who now lives in Ogunquit, was keynote speaker at the Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast in Portland, which also marked the 50th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Fifty years ago, Barney Frank had more experience than most white Americans of the civil rights struggle. He had recently returned from the racially-charged atmosphere of Mississippi, where, in 1964, he was a volunteer helping to register black Americans to vote.
The following year, the landmark Voting Rights Act helped further boost the voting rights of African-Americans by outlawing a number of discriminatory practices. Frank's message to those gathered at the 34th annual Martin Luther King Jr. breakfast in Portland: that the right to vote is sacrosanct and should always be exercised.
"A failure to vote is a failure to engage in a way that brings about change," Frank said. "When people come and tell me they don't vote, they have no claim on my attention."
But Frank says U.S. voting rights are under attack from both sides of the political spectrum. The right, he says, has raised the specter of what Frank calls the "non-existent problem of voter fraud," making it harder for people to vote.
But there were harsh words, too, for some on the political left - namely, those who claim to be so disillusioned with the political process that they actively discourage people from voting.
"The people who say, 'You know what? Big money runs politics. They only listen to the big shots. Why bother to vote?' Well, I will tell you this: They don't listen to people who don't vote," Frank said.
Frank says this kind of voter suppression would have outraged the Rev. King, who, while an idealist, was also a political realist who understood one key truth: "That an idealism that paid no attention to whether or not anything got accomplished, only made you feel good, it didn't help anybody," Frank said. "Martin Luther King was a zealous pragmatist, he was an idealist who thought long and hard about how to get things done. We owe him to continue that tradition in its fullest."
"Kids nowadays need to know how it was before, what people had gone through in the past," says Akual Majok, a seventh-grader at King Middle School in Portland. Majok has also been working as a community volunteer helping to educate younger kids about the Civil Rights Movement. She says it's important to keep the Rev. King's message alive to inspire the next generation of civil rights leaders.
The annual MLK breakfast, now in its 34th year, is sponsored by the Portland chapter of the NAACP.
Maine Gov. Paul LePage attended a Martin Luther King breakfast in Waterville, where he once served as mayor. Speaking to journalists before the event, LePage described King as a "breath of fresh air" who brought sense to the Civil Rights Movement because of his peaceful approach.
LePage drew national attention four years ago for declining invitations to attend the MLK events, due to what he said were scheduling conflicts - and for a graphic comment he made about the NAACP.
Tom Porter looks back at Martin Luther King Jr.'s visit to Maine in 1964.
