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TechnoratiMarchers Prepare to Honor the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on 40th Anniversary of Assassination
MEMPHIS, Tenn. - On the 40th anniversary of his assassination, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is to be honored as a champion of peace in the city where he died.
"Here was a man who understood nonviolence at a depth that I had never known before," said C.T. Vivian, a former King associate.
Presidential candidates, civil rights leaders, labor activists and thousands of citizens were expected to come together Friday in Memphis to honor King for his devotion to racial equality and economic justice.
"The whole nation flinched" when King was killed by a rifle shot on April 4, 1968, said writer Cynthia Griggs Fleming, one of the many historians, commentators and activists in town for panel discussions and lectures on King's legacy.
King advised his followers to keep working for equal rights for all citizens, "to keep on moving," no matter what obstacles they faced, Fleming said in a talk Thursday at a Memphis church.
"Don't be so consumed by the pain that you don't hear the message," she said.
Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain were scheduled to take part in the anniversary day events that were to include a "recommitment march" through Memphis and the laying of wreaths at the site of King's assassination. Sen. Barack Obama will be campaigning in Indiana.
King was cut down on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel while helping organize a strike by Memphis sanitation workers, then some of the poorest of the city's working poor.
The National Civil Rights Museum opened in 1991 at the former motel, which now holds most of the exhibits tracing the history of America's struggle for equal rights. The museum also encompasses the flophouse across the street from which confessed killer James Earl Ray admitted firing the fatal shot. Ray died in prison in 1998.
King was a champion of nonviolent protest for social change, and his writings and speeches still stir older followers and new ones alike, said Vivian, who helped organize lunch-counter sit-ins in Nashville in 1960 and rode on a "freedom bus" through Mississippi.
"The world still listens to Martin," he said. "There are people who didn't reach for him then who reach for him now. They want to know this man. What did he say? What did he think?"
Other tributes were being held around the country. In Congress, House and Senate leaders and lawmakers who once worked with the civil rights leader marked the anniversary with a tribute Thursday in the Capitol's Statuary Hall.
"Because of the leadership of this man we rose up out of fear and became willing to put our bodies on the line," said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a companion of King in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.
In Indianapolis, Ethel Kennedy was scheduled to make brief remarks during a ceremony Friday evening at what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Park. Her late husband Robert Kennedy gave a passionate speech there the night of King's assassination that was credited with quelling violence in the city.
In Atlanta, the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic Site was commemorating the anniversary with the opening Friday of a special exhibit chronicling the final days and hours before King's death, as well as his funeral procession through his hometown five days later.
The centerpiece of the exhibit is the wagon that was drawn by two mules as it carried King's casket from his funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church to Morehouse College, his alma mater.
©2008 Associated Press
10 Comments so far
Show AllKem, ROFL
It's hilarious how McCain and the rest of the Republican bigots grovel and suddenly turn into nonracists at election time in order to get African-American votes.
Why is it only the decent, left-leaning, nonviolent men of peace get assassinated? Gee, I wonder who could be behind the assassinations
(scratches head).
Did any see McCain yesterday trying to apologize for his past comments about MLK? It was absolutely pitiful, his repeating the words, "I was wrong, I was wrong, I was wrong". ___ No shit.
If he's now trying to garner any black votes he sure screwed it up proper. He's the Republicans choice. HAAHAAAAAA, heheheee haaaaaahhhaaaahhaaaaa.
Now here is a real hero and champion! MLK was and remains larger than life. He is an exemplary example of courage and selflessness. What a great loss. We miss and still mourn his death. We will never forget him. Long live the great memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr!
p.s. If our current crop of presidential hopefuls Clinton, McCain and Obama could grow to be 1/100 as distinguished a leader as MLK they will go down in history as being great leaders.
It would serve only to further divide our people on a common moral absolute the value of life. This keeps us in the nitrous oxide, away from that uncomfortable reality. Your value is directly proportional to your willingness to conform. It's not the 1960's any longer not everybody has A.D.D. alzheimers maybe. Pessimisim to effect change with who you have and what you want is a great obstacle for the instant gratification crowd. You must have faith in your humanity (your fellow man) however difficult things appear.
The hands of social evolution/retribution move painfully slow for the wicked and deserving, but they do move.
Why don't we honor Dr. King by actually finding out who was behind the conspiracy to kill and who framed James Earl Ray? The 1999 civil trial that proved this conspiracy and discredited the ridiculous Ray did it official fiction should be the starting point for all those who care about his legacy.
If we can't find the killers it says much about our commitment to justice as a nation.
Culture is fate. Countries, clans, military services, and individuals are products of their respective cultures, and they are either empowered or imprisoned. The majority of the world's inhabitants are prisoners of their cultures, and they will rage against inadequacies they cannot admit, cannot bear, and cannot escape. Pragmatic behavior daily subverts antiquated social structures, even as traditionalists resist the reformation of
the old hierarchy. They are simply guaranteeing their peoples' failure, while further increasing our relative strength.
Do not allow yourself to be categorized by popular prescription.
The beauty of MLK is that in living a rooted life, in death he was eternaly planted in our hearts and there is always room for growth of that rooting in our thinking. I think of the speaking of names of the fallen by mothers on the Plaza del Mayo - and the response - PRESENT!
Happy Feast of MLKjr! This is one I hope we will all be celebrating soon. Praise God for the prophets and the martyrs who speak the truth to power without fear and show us how worthwhile that courage is.
I wish I'd known about the Memphis march sooner, I'd have been there. My memorial is to do voter registration in front of the Dollar Store.
Hasta la Democracia
Peach McD in Durham NC
It is nice to see that we have people going on marches. It is also nice to know that word of mouth is an effective tool.
Just because it didn't make the MSM, doesn't mean it didn't happen. Kudos to CD for helping keep the dream alive and going.
"Don't be so consumed by the pain that you don't hear the message," she said.
These words are so true, and I suspect that today's black youth don't hear the message. They act out by wearing droop pants, glorifying rappers who use misogynistic language, mimicking the prison and "gangsta" culture that they totally miss the point of the civil rights movement. Sure, they have every right and reason to be angry, but there is a huge difference in being angry and taking that anger and doing something proactive with it instead of just allowing it to consume you to the point where you just stay angry and don't accomplish anything.
Sure, race is still a big issue in this country. Sure, blacks disproportionally end up in prison, work lower paid jobs and are generally more economically disadvantaged than their white counterparts. But I wonder how much of this would not be the case had they worked harder to lift themselves up and out of poverty. Now, before you all jump on me as some kind of racist, that mode of thought goes back to Frederick Douglass, who was opposed to Freedman's Aid Societies at the end of the Civil War and at the time of emancipation. His reasoning was that he did not want his people to drop into a pattern of dependence, and that it would be far better for his race to lift themselves up by their own effort.
The troubles with black culture cannot be entirely put on the backs of whites. They must accept some of the responsibility for their own situation. There are a great many successful blacks who came out of extreme poverty to become very successful and affluent people. It is possible to escape your situation and make something of yourself, but it requires sacrifice and hard work. Going after the easy money of drugs or gangs isn't going to accomplish anything but make you dead or in prison at a far too young age. If you want something, you have to earn it. The hard way. Work for it. Sacrifice. Pay your dues by working your way up the ladder. Plenty of people have done it before and quite successfully, black, white, Latino, Native American and otherwise. Discrimination can be transcended. History has proven that time and time again. It just means refusing to back down no matter how many obstacles they throw at you.
Hear the message. Then go out and do something constructive with it.