Assortment of Bay Area events to honor King

Jason B. Johnson, Chronicle Staff Writer

Thousands of Bay Area residents are celebrating the memory of Martin Luther King Jr. by taking part in marches, artistic performances, environmental activism and even Buddhist gatherings this holiday weekend.

About 200 volunteers are expected to gather and clean large swaths of Martin Luther King Jr. Shoreline Park in Oakland as a way to honor the late civil rights leader.

For the 15th year in a row, volunteers will hold a rally this morning, then fan out over more than 70 acres of the site, located off Swan Way in Oakland, said Joan Souzio, spokeswoman for the East Bay Regional Park District.

"Some will do shoreline cleanup and marsh restoration and removal of nonnative (plant) species," Souzio said.

About half the participants will be kids from several Bay Area schools, said Chicory Bechtel, spokeswoman for Earth Team, a nonprofit group taking part in the cleanup.

The Vallejo branch of the NAACP will host a parade today from Tennessee and Tuolumne streets to Hogan High School. And members of Berkeley's Buddhist Peace Fellowship are taking part in several weekend events recognizing King's peace efforts.

"He's really an important person for us to remember in his real words and actions, not in terms of a postage stamp or sound bite," said the Rev. Alan Senauke, national coordinator of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship. "It's just really important that these teachings stay alive, and that they not be reduced to something iconic."

Senauke holds a regular retreat workshop called the Dharma of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., where participants study the late preacher's speeches and writings. He said King had a strong connection to Buddhism.

King wrote a paper in graduate school on Buddhism, relating it to Christian theology, and nominated a Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, for the Nobel Peace Prize, said Senauke.

St. Paul of the Shipwreck Church in San Francisco's Bayview celebrated its 20th annual Martin Luther King birthday Mass on Sunday, honoring King's concern for the poor and respect for the dignity of human life.

"It's (King's teaching) specifically relevant for us Catholics," said the Rev. John Heinz. "Our teaching calls us to be conscious of injustice and working toward a just social order. He was a prophet of our time, and he was martyred."