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Dr. Lavonia Allison was the first woman to serve as grand marshal of Durham's Martin Luther King Jr. Parade.
The seventh annual parade was held January 31, 2009 on Fayetteville Street. With a theme of "Dreams Can Become Reality," the parade honored the slain civil-rights leader and President Obama.
Allison, who was the first chairwoman of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People, has headed that organization for the last dozen years. The committee is a political action group with nine standing committees, including Civic, Economic, Health, Housing, Legal Redress, Political, Youth, Religious and Human Affairs.
"We are honored that Dr. Allison accepted to serve as grand marshal this year," said parade organizer Phyllis Coley. "As the nation made history, so did the parade by naming the first woman grand marshal. Dr. Allison has worked diligently to make a difference in the lives of Durham citizens through both her professional and community work. She epitomizes our theme; she believes that by working together, dreams can become reality."
Allison, a Durham native, has an undergraduate degree from Hampton Institute, now known as Hampton University. She earned a master's and doctorate from New York University.
She taught at N.C. Central University from 1960-1974 in NCCU's physical education department. She was a member of the university's board of trustees and also served as director of the N.C. Health Careers Access Program, which provided academic and enrichment support for minority students from under-served rural and inner-city North Carolina communities.
The Durham Martin Luther King Jr. Parade has been named one of the Top 20 Events in the Southeast by the Southeast Tourism Society, an organization composed of tourism industry professionals in 13 Southeastern states.
A longtime community activist and civil-rights leader, Allison said she sees the "beginning of a new kind of America."
"He [Rev Dr.Martin Luther King Jr.] had a vision that one day things would work out. I think about his speech about the mountaintop. And it's the vision that I think that Martin Luther King had about our country -- that people could come together with differences, and we would be able to make this country all that democracy could be. It hasn't gotten there, but this is the beginning of moving in that direction.”
"Some of us think that the work is done just because we have achieved a tremendous accomplishment in the election of Obama, but we have so much more to do," she said, citing problems with health care, education and overflowing prisons. But she's optimistic.
"I think the whole atmosphere of the country is going to change," Allison said. "People are going to come together who have never worked as aggressively on issues. I think people have been afraid to step out and even to discuss race issues. And I think that we're going to have to deal with certain things, and we need more people who are courageous enough to deal with them."
Allison said she sees King's dream moving into a higher gear.
"I think we're going to get there more rapidly than we would have. It's been a slow process, but I think things are going to move more rapidly in terms of certain changes. And I think we're going to have more people stepping out together to deal with them. And we surely hope that will happen in North Carolina."
Allison said she's excited about attending President Obama's inauguration in Washington, D.C.
"I'm just pleased that I was able to go and enjoy and see people, because, you know, I've been in this struggle a long time. “
"It's just been marvelous to live this long, to see what has happened. So, I'm excited, I'm pleased. And there's a chance to make changes that will make America all that we want it to be."
** This article is from
the Durham Herald-Sun newspaper. **