FERRIDAY, La. – More than 70 people held a march and church service Monday morning near Ferriday to honor of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

&uot;This shows that a lot of people are still trying to keep Dr. King’s dream alive,&uot; said David Martin, a member of the crowd that marched down Doty Road from Black Bayou to Rose Hill Missionary Baptist Church.

During the march, which has been held annually for at least four years, young and old sang hymns such as &uot;We Shall Overcome&uot; and &uot;This Little Light of Mine.&uot; At the front of the crowd, one of the marchers waved a large American flag.

The service featured readings of King’s &uot;I Have a Dream&uot; speech and Psalm 23, a dance performance, speeches, hymns and a brief sermon by Dr. Freddie Schiele, Rose Hill’s pastor.

Schiele encouraged those present &uot;to have a dream, set a goal and do what it takes to achieve that goal. Remember Dr. King’s dream, … and remember his movement was a nonviolent movement.&uot; He also asked them to remember that &uot;if one segment of the world or community is not free, none of us are free.&uot;

The church’s youth also acted out scenes from King’s life, from discrimination he encountered as a child to his death. They acted out King’s arrest during the Montgomery, Ala., bus boycott; the march on Alabama’s State Capitol; and a ceremony in which King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

&uot;We should strive to put ourselves, as Dr. King did, in a position where God can use us to do his will,&uot;&160;said Derrick Carson, a speaker at the event.

Thanks to King’s leadership and God’s help, African-Americans are now much more free than they were in the not-too-distant past, Beatrice Brown, one of the event’s organizers, said during the march.

&uot;Now we’re able to sit anywhere on a bus, we have the right to vote, whites and blacks can go to school together, and we can walk into a restaurant with everyone else,&uot; Brown said.

&uot;But there was a time we couldn’t do that. This is why we pay tribute to Dr. King, because from childhood to death this is what he fought for – freedom.&uot;