MLK Day in Reno
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Reno has one of the smallest percentages of African American residents of any city in the nation, but for one civil rights activist, that doesn’t matter. For him, MLK Day isn’t a day off, but a day on.
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(Reno, NV)
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Until the 1970s and the
passage of the Nevada Fair Housing Act, open discrimination against blacks was
tolerated in Reno. Lonnie
Feemster of the Reno chapter of the NAACP says the past continues to
haunt the region’s small African American community. But he hopes the spirit of
Martin Luther King will help energize Reno’s blacks.
If more people would take up that type of personality
and are willing to go out and put their comfort on the line – maybe not their
life but at least their comfort – to help overcome the inequities in our
society. I think it will make a
difference.
Feemster points out that
African Americans make up only 2.6 percent of Reno’s population. He says home ownership among that
group is the second lowest in the nation at thirty percent. The local branch of the NAACP is planning a
dinner this evening to celebrate Dr. King’s birthday.
Brian Bahouth KXJZ News.