Martin Luther King Jr.’s time on earth was short, but his legacy is not. His name and narrative will always be in history books and honored on his day of remembrance, which is on Jan. 20 this year.
In Coronado, Dr. Fern Nelson, a retired dermatologist and longtime resident of the island, said the day marks an important time to think about a historical figure and his message.
Spend some time, if only 15 minutes, in sincere, thoughtful reflection of Martin Luther King (Jr.) and one’s self and one’s community and the world.
Dr. Fern Nelson
“Spend some time, if only 15 minutes, in sincere, thoughtful reflection of Martin Luther King (Jr.) and one’s self and one’s community and the world,” said Nelson.
Nelson moved to Coronado in 2000, just a decade or so after Black families first started coming back and buying houses on the island, according to Kevin Ashley, a local historian. From the 1880s to 1920s, and again from the 1940s to 1960s, Black people made up a significant portion of Coronado’s population.
For the first time in several decades, a Black family managed to buy a house in Coronado at the end of the 1980s due to a code of ethics enacted in the 1920s that discriminated against people of color.
“It’s very sad that there are so few Black people and so few Black homeowners on Coronado, excluding military of course,” Nelson said.
Nelson said its important to think about what Martin Luther King Jr. represented before he was assassinated, and after.
“He was an advocate of peace. So what does that say about us in Coronado and the world in terms of violence and guns?” Nelson asked rhetorically.
According to Ashley, Coronado has had a long and interesting history with African Americans — laborers and their families who moved to the island to help build the Hotel del Coronado before housing prices soared. Then, at the end of the 1920s, the National Association of Real Estate Boards put out a code of ethics that essentially barred Realtors from selling to “a person of detrimental character or race into a community that will drop property values.”
“From the mid 20’s up until about 1990, only one African American succeeded in buying a property in Coronado,” Ashley explained. “Coronado suddenly became whitewashed.”
However, there was a time in between where the Federal Housing Project brought more than 3,000 people to Coronado, including over 400 African Americans. This lasted from 1944 to 1969, and according to the Coronado Historical Association, fostered a surprising diversity on the island compared to other cities in San Diego County.
But this era ended with the demolition of a housing project in 1969.
“The diversity that you see in Coronado’s yearbooks … a lot of it had to do with that housing project,” Ashley said. “(Black people) were still not able to buy or rent any of the normal residential neighborhoods of Coronado.”
In the beginning of the 1990s, the Sefa-Boakyes became the first Black family to own a home in the Coronado Cays, Ashley said.
Dr. Kofi Sefa-Boakye still works as a gynecologist on the island.
We think that civil rights, it’s continuous, this continuous progress that’s forward and better. When in fact, it’s two steps going forward, one step back. And sometimes it’s one step forward, two steps back.
Kevin Ashley
“We think that civil rights, it’s continuous, this continuous progress that’s forward and better,” Ashley said. “When in fact, it’s two steps going forward, one step back. And sometimes it’s one step forward, two steps back.”
Martin Luther King Jr. was a leader in the civil rights movement that helped pass the Fair Housing Act of 1968 seven days after he was assassinated. Although the law did not fully eradicate discrimination within housing, it eventually allowed some Black families to come to Coronado.
Ashley’s own family of mixed race bought a Coronado house in 2013, and is among very few of color to purchase a home on the island in the last couple decades.
Ashley is white but his wife and children are Black.
“I fear that the legacy of Martin Luther King (Jr.) will be under assault a bit, from some commentators in these next few years,” Ashley said. “I just hope that people can take their time and do their own reading of history and understand that this person was one of the greatest Americans who ever lived, and it had nothing to do with his color.”
Ashley said love was the basis of Martin Luther King Jr.’s thinking and that he was constantly talking about love being the most powerful force.
To Nelson, remembering this day is an opportunity for introspection. Martin Luther King Jr. is remembered for his work in the civil rights movement, but he represented many other things.
Are we who we want to be?Dr. Fern Nelson
“He believed in content of character,” Nelson said. “Looking at oneself and taking a fearless inventory of one’s own character and of the people that you choose to surround yourself with … Are we who we want to be?”
