Long before Martin Luther King Day was a thing of pageants, speeches and photo ops long before it was a thing at all Al Holmes had his own celebration.
On that day, Jan. 15, he and his friends would cross Main Street in Asbury Park, going east, into the white section of town. They would head over to Cookman Avenue, and walk into a store. And there, they would …
buy something. They treated us like crap when we came in, Holmes said. But we didn t object to the treatment. We didn t voice it out loud. We didn t cause a disturbance. All we did was get what we wanted to get. Most of the time, it was something we could get someplace cheaper. Just to prove a point.