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Carson renames street after MLK

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The city of Carson is paying tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.,—on the 50th year since his assassination—by  renaming 192nd Street in his honor and recognizing his contributions to advocating and ensuring “environmental justice” generations before the term was ever coined.

“Today, I am truly privileged and honored to recognize the late civil rights leader, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., for the many and immense contributions that he made to the social fabric of our country,” said Mayor Albert Robles, who was joined by other council members, elected officials, city staff, community leaders and local school children during a ceremony held near the corner of Avalon Boulevard and the just named Martin Luther King, Jr. Street (formerly known as 192nd Street) in Carson.

“The city of Carson joins the hundreds and hundreds of cities across America in renaming a street in honor of Dr. King, who advanced not only the civil rights of African-Americans but all Americans through the use of nonviolence and civil disobedience,” Robles added. King received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 for his humanitarian work.

A street sign bearing Dr. King’s name was unveiled during the ceremony. Local school children participated in the event by citing a variety of characteristics and attributes that pertain to the late civil rights icon. Coincidentally, the street renaming event also coincides with the 50th anniversary year of the incorporation of the City of Carson in 1968. “If not for the efforts of Dr. King and all who joined him, I would not be the Mayor of this great City,” Robles said.

“Dr. King is universally known for the March on Washington in 1963 and the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech, but he also believed that everyone had the right to clean air, water and soil, and that all people should have the right to a healthy environment,” Robles continued. “Within years of Dr. King’s most famous speech, environmental activists using the same tactics successfully pressured the Federal Government to pass the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the National Environmental Protection Act.”

Robles cited King’s environmental achievements against the environmental landscape that still confronts Carson which has been identified by the State of California as a disadvantaged community.

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