Parades, speeches highlight Martin Luther King birthday

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA - Parades, local festivities and speeches by U.S. Senator Bob Graham and Governor Jeb Bush highlighted Martin Luther King Junior Day observances Monday in Florida. <br> <br> Graham, who is considering a run for the presidency, said during a breakfast celebration in Orlando that many of King&#39;s dreams have yet to be fulfilled. <br> <br> But Graham said he was optimistic that the nation could live up to King&#39;s visions. <br> <br> Meanwhile, Bush attended a prayer breakfast at a black congregation in a working-class section of Pompano Beach. <br> <br> Speaking at the Worldwide Christian Center, Bush told about 700 people that racial prejudice and injustice still exist in Florida. But he hammered on the theme that honoring the slain civil rights leader&#39;s commitment to education would help overcome those evils. <br> <br> Bush also spoke proudly of Florida&#39;s role in the civil rights movement, lauding the achievements of educators Blanche Ely and Mary McLeod Bethune, whose day school for little girls grew into a college, and A. Phillip Randolph of Jacksonville, whom King referred to as ``the conscience of the labor movement.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> In downtown Jacksonville, several thousand people lined the streets for a parade to honor the memory of King and later gathered at the fairgrounds for speeches and music. <br> <br> In Hallandale, the city&#39;s parade in King&#39;s honor went on as scheduled, albeit with a new grand marshal. <br> <br> Broward County Mayor Diana Wasserman-Rubin was removed from the role by event officials, because she supports removing embattled county elections supervisor Miriam Oliphant from office. Oliphant is black; Wasserman-Rubin is white.

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