EC man recalls loss of American dream champion
By BRENDA SOMMER bsommer@leader-news.com

HONORING THE PAST: Rev. Harold Simmons of El Campo was in Mildenhall, England, serving in the U.S. Air Force in 1968. In London on the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assasinated, he says the loss of the civil rights leader was a blow to the nation as a whole. King, he says, isn't a black hero - he is a champion for all. Simmons runs the El Campo African-American museum.

Rev. Harold Simmons remembers clearly how the world was 40 years ago yesterday, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on the patio deck of a Memphis motel room.

The director of the El Campo African-American Museum was in London the day the peaceoriented civil rights activist was shot dead.

"I was in the service, stationed in Mildenhall, England, but I was in London at that time," Simmons said Friday. "It was big news over there in the papers in England. Martin Luther King was an icon all over the world, for all freedomseeking people everywhere. It wasn't just a black movement, then or now. It was worldwide: King corresponded with (Mahatma) Gandhi, it wasn't just a black thing."

Simmons said he grew up in a completely segregated El Campo, finishing high school and attending Wharton County Junior College during the 1963- 64 school year. In 1964, he enlisted in the Air Force.

"I joined the military, like most young men," he said. "Number one, because of the opportunities it offered. They'd pay for your education, they had the GI Bill going. It gave the possibility to buy property and houses.

"All those things were incentives, especially getting to see the world. I wanted to get out of the cotton patch, the hay field, the rice dryer. Just like all the rest of the kids - not just black kids, all kids - I was seeking the opportunity to get away from the farm."

He said he and fellow military members in England ardently followed the civil rights movement in the United States.

"Oh, definitely," Simmons said. "He was an icon, more so then than now, because of the situation we were in at that time, coming out of segregation. If you could carry yourself back to that time, it was a glorious time for blacks in America."

He said he was, and wasn't, surprised by rioting that broke out nationwide immediately following King's murder.

"America was kind of like a powder keg, because of the tension from the civil rights movement, and the anti-war movement," Simmons said. "You never expect that kind of thing to happen, but it was a volatile situation at the time."

He said he wasn't surprised riots weren't much of an issue in Texas, or that Wharton County remained calm.

"There was a different air in the state of Texas," Simmons said. "It wasn't quite as volatile as other places, because people lived together here, grew up together here, I think, and that situation still persists today, in a way."

He said he wishes Dr. King were seen as more than just a hero for blacks.

"I think it's a shame that we look at him just as a black hero," Simmons said. "He's an American. The dream he had was an American dream; he just wanted the blacks to share in the American dream that everyone else was privileged to enjoy."

King's life set an example Simmons said he's never forgotten.

"One thing that's important about Rev. King is, he let us know that one person can make a difference," Simmons said. "Black, white, any of us."

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. REMEMBERED

Civil Rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was slain April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tenn. Born Jan. 15, 1929, the man from Atlanta, Ga. became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his efforts to bring an end to segregation in the United States. A Baptist minister, King preached for the use of non-violent means to oppose discrimination. Martin Luther King Day became a national holiday in 1986.