KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasHow Far Has LV Come Since MLK's Speech?

How Far Has LV Come Since MLK's Speech?

(Jan. 14) -- Empowering minorities was part of Doctor King's message. Eyewitness News took a look at his "I Have a Dream" speech and asked people in the black community how far has Las Vegas come?

"Land where my father died, land of the pilgrims pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring," boomed Martin Luther King Junior in his dream speech.

More than 40 years later, Las Vegan Lonnie Banks says Martin Luther King Junior's dream is not fulfilled yet. "It's progressing slowly," says Banks.

Banks is part of that progress. Once a week he sells barbeque from a parking lot. He would like to open his own restaurant in the area known as the Westside, but says there are problems like gangs and drugs. It hinders a lot of businesses down here. They got people hanging out. Business is bad when you got winos hangin' out and stuff like that. It's a ghetto compared to the white community," said Banks.

Twelve years ago, race riots erupted in west Las Vegas during the Rodney King trial. 

"It was like a war zone, there was so much smoke!" says Las Vegas Fire Chief David Washington. Washington remembers fighting the fire. "I understood why people did it, they did it, they were angry about being suppressed in the area they didn't seem the same economic development that was in the other areas," he said. Washington also says the potential for a repeat still exists. But slowly, there has been change.

"A black and a white person couldn't even walk down the street. Now people don't pay any attention," says Frances Lea, a longtime Las Vegan.

"He had a dream, and one day that dream might come true. It might not be in my time, but my kids or their kids might be able to enjoy it," says Banks.