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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....

Morris L. Smith, 87, retired chemist, inventor and civil rights leader Melanie Burney, The Philadelphia Inquirer When an assassin killed the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, Lawnside School Board President Morris L. Smith acted quickly to pay homage to the civil rights leader in his South Jersey community. Five days after King was slain, the school district, led by Mr. Smith, adopted a resolution to make King’s Jan. 15 birthday a holiday, commencing in 1969. Lawnside was believed to be the first municipality to commemorate the day, 14 years before it was dec...