Men and women of all ages, races and classes gathered across the state today in churches, school buildings and even outside under a soft rain to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., 38 years after he was assasinated.

In Newport, more than 100 people gathered inside the Cranston-Calvert School, where an illustration of King hung from a lectern. Those in attendance clapped their hands as the dozen or so youngsters of the New Gospel Melodies took turns singing solos to the lively piano accompaniment of Michael Brown.

Marc Hardge stepped up to the lectern and said that, being a preacher’s son, he couldn’t help being “overhwhelmed with the spirit.”

Hardge referred to King’s “I Have a Dream” speech and said that while young people now enjoy many of the liberties for which the black leader fought, they are now responsible for inheriting his legacy.

“So you stand there and say, ‘What can I do?’, that is what you are charged with, that is what you are responsible for. Find out what your dream is and then it your responsibility to achieve that dream.”

Hardge was the guest speaker at Newport’s 22nd annual birthday program to in honor of King, coordinated by the Newport County branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The day-long event included a prayer breakfast, a morning program of music and speaking where Hardge took the stage, a luncheon at the Atlantic Beach Club and an evening worship service. In one of the youth-oriented events, teams of students representing area schools compete in a quiz contest called “The Black History Bowl.”

Things also started early today in Cranston, where a pastor from New York spoke at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Scholarship Breakfast and told about 650 people in attendance that they must be aware of the problems in their communities if they want people to fix them.

“Our legislators – their role is to get out and improve the process by improving education, which will lead us to income and justice,” said the Rev. Lonnie McCleod, pastor of the Church of Living Hope in East Harlem, N.Y. “Our role, as the church, is to read the handwriting on the wall.”

The Ministers’ Alliance of Rhode Island breakfast, held at Rhodes on the Pawtuxet, drew a host of political leaders: U.S. Senators Jack Reed and Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., Governor Carcieri, Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts, Providence Mayor David N. Cicilline and Warwick Mayor Scott Avedisian. (The newly elected mayor in Cranston, Michael T. Napolitano, was attending a funeral.)

The Ministers’ Alliance honored the company MetLife for being a major supporter of the alliance over the last 23 years, and gave out 24 scholarships to high school students, each worth $400.

The Aiuma Youth Choir of Rhode Island and the Mix Magic Theatre each sang several selections at the breakfast.

And in downtown Providence this afternoon, a political activist group is set to meet at City Hall to fight for a $10 minimum wage for employees of businesses receiving city tax breaks. The rally, organizers say, is a tribute to King’s legacy of using activism to effect political change.

Organizers with Rhode Island Jobs For Justice said that the rally will be a gathering of faith leaders, community activists, and political leaders to call for a higher minimum wage for the working poor, a cause they said that the slain civil rights leader supported during his life.

The rally will start today at 5:15 p.m. in the Alderman's Chambers, on the 3rd floor.

This year's holiday comes on the day King would have turned 78. King was killed April 4, 1968 while standing on the balcony of a hotel in Memphis, Tenn.