Survey responses from 413 human resource and employee relations executives representing a cross-section of public and private employers found that 23 percent had scheduled a paid holiday for all or most workers. It was a treacherous time, marked by lynchings and cross burnings, and when she was 4 years old, her parents packed the family and headed North. Yesterday, Petite was among about 300 people who braved arctic temperatures for a parade in Hempstead honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the southern minister who became one of America's greatest civil rights champions. My father worked three jobs so we could buy a house. About 700 members of eastern Long Island churches and organizations gathered at the Wyndham Wind Watch Hotel in Hauppauge for a King Day breakfast fund raiser.
Organizers plan to apply the proceeds toward the construction of a child development center.
In Uniondale, the Nassau Human Relations Commission hosted a King Day luncheon for about 350 people at the Uniondale Marriott Hotel. But I thought about all the sacrifice he did for us. He went through a lot more than we did today, so I just forgot about the cold. Still, the Haitian-born Hempstead High School student, who skipped the parade but attended the ceremony, said King paved the way for immigrants like her. I could have done more to represent King.