Remembering the dream

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would want people of all colors and backgrounds to observe his holiday on Monday by loving one another, say local people who had contact with the civil rights leader, who was murdered in 1968.

But Henry Santos of Middleborough, who was a roommate of King's at Boston University in 1952, said King realized his message of harmony made him a likely victim of violence.

''People who challenge the status quo really do understand that they're taking their fate in their own hands," said Santos, who is a professor emeritus at Bridgewater State College.

In 1968, Santos was a music professor at Bridgewater State. He was giving a piano lesson at his home on Everett Street in Middleborough when he heard King had been shot in Memphis. He and his wife, Leola, ''were just devastated," he said quietly. ''We had the fear that something would happen to him, and it was just a very, very bleak day."

Thirty-six years later, Santos still is inspired by King. ''Martin used to say that unearned suffering was redemptive," he said.

But some of the problems King strived to solve remain, said Leonard C. Alkins, president of the NAACP's Boston branch. ''People are unwilling to address the issue of race," he said. ''We have to address that as the original sin, because if you don't admit that is the problem, you can't begin the healing process."

Alkins, a Brockton resident and former legislative aide to ex-Senate majority leader Kevin Harrington, met King in the 1960s when he addressed a joint session of the Massachusetts Legislature. King spoke eloquently for more than an hour about the need to bring about humane conditions for all people, Alkins said. ''People were absolutely spellbound. There wasn't a sound in that chamber."

King's visit, Alkins added, came at a time when Beacon Hill was bitterly divided over a bill that later became the Racial Imbalance Act, passed in 1967, a law that was part of the effort to desegregate Boston's public schools.

''His message is still the same," Alkins said. ''We need to show more love, more understanding and learn to work with each other and judge people by who they are and not what they are."

Santos said he knew from personal experience that King was destined for greatness.

In 1952, King and Santos shared a Massachusetts Avenue apartment, as well as similar interests. King, who was working on his doctorate in theology at Boston University, loved music. Santos, an undergraduate studying music at BU, loved literature. ''I don't remember why we did it, but we once read T.S. Eliot's 'The Wasteland' into a tape recorder," he said.

Santos said that King, whom he described as an ordinary hero who accomplished extraordinary feats, would have changed the world had he lived.

''King would have been a role model for positiveness in the world, though it would be the positiveness that would rub against people," Santos said. As uncomfortable as it may seem to some, he added, tough talk about racial relations is what is needed now to realize King's dream.

''The majority group is so protected by being white that they don't realize the extent to which race cuts deeply into this society," Santos said. ''White people need to talk to white people about race."

Dialogue among people of all races should take place in a mediated forum, Santos added, to ensure constructive discussion. ''I don't mean that we all do the teaching and everybody else does the listening," he said. ''I mean we share listening and talking together. We learn together."

Alkins said children of different races play together without prompting or trouble; problems come as they grow older. ''We're the only nation that refers to its people by race. Hatred is taught. Bigotry is taught. If there is any hope in our society, it will be in our youth."

Adults also have a responsibility to correct subtler forms of economic and racial discrimination, according to Alkins. He cited as an example predatory lending practices that target minorities.

''If you want change, then you must vote," Alkins said. ''There's no excuse, because people died to give you the right to vote. That is a mandatory issue for people of color."

Santos said the celebration of Martin Luther King Day indicates that ''we certainly have come a long way, but we certainly have a long way to go."