Former President Bill Clinton sings 'We Shall Overcome' during a ceremony honoring Martin Luther King, Monday, Jan. 21, 2008, at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Posted on 01/21/2008 11:46:13 AM PST by NormsRevenge
ATLANTA - Hundreds of civil rights leaders and others crowded Martin Luther King Jr.'s Ebenezer Baptist Church on Monday to celebrate the man and his legacy.
"We would be remiss if we did not commemorate Martin Luther King Jr., a champion of peace in a time of war," said Isaac Newton Farris Jr., a nephew of King.
The King Center has asked the nation to commemorate his birthday for 40 years ? for more years than the civil rights leader lived, Farris said. King was assassinated at age 39 on April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tenn. He would have turned 79 this year.
Farris urged diplomacy, economic incentives and other nonviolent efforts "as an alternative to military intervention to end the war in Iraq."
Former President Bill Clinton, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin were among the dignitaries attending the ceremony.
"Martin aimed high, acted with faith, dreamed miracles that inspired a nation. Can we act on King's legacy without dreaming? I think not," she said. "King's legacy gives light to our hopes, permission to our aspirations and relevance to our dreams."
Clinton told the congregation he appointed more black officials in his administration than all other previous presidents combined "not because of me, but because of the influence of Martin Luther King in my life."
"He freed us all to fight the civil rights battle, to fight the poverty battle, to fight all these battles and do it together," Clinton said. "He made a place at the table for all of us. He made the beloved community possible."
Clinton noted the diverse presidential race that includes a Mormon, a black man and a Baptist preacher as well as his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"Isn't this interesting? I mean, how cool is it? You know, we've got all these different people seeking the presidency," he said. "And guess what? It's all possible because of Martin Luther King's vision of the beloved community."
The holiday has been observed at Ebenezer Baptist Church ? where King preached from 1960 until 1968 ? every year since his death. But it holds a new political significance this week because it falls closer to primary elections than in past years, since many states moved up their balloting.
South Carolina, which has a large black electorate in the Democratic primary, votes on Jan. 26. And King's home state, Georgia, will be part of the Super Tuesday voting on Feb. 5, along with California, New York and 22 other states.
King's actual birthday is Jan. 15, but the federal holiday is observed on the third Monday in January. It has been a national holiday since 1986.
His widow, Coretta Scott King, worked for more than a decade to establish her husband's birthday as a federal holiday. She died in 2006 at age 78.
Former President Bill Clinton sings 'We Shall Overcome' during a ceremony honoring Martin Luther King, Monday, Jan. 21, 2008, at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama (D-IL) (C) marches in a Martin Luther King Day rally at the state capitol in Columbia, South Carolina, January 21, 2008. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
I love Martin Luther King; we were lucky to have him.
Democratic presidential hopeful, Sen. Barack Obabma, D-Ill., right, is applauded by Princeton Professor Cornel West, far left, as he takes the stage at the Martin Luther King Day March to the Dome in Columbia, S.C., Monday, Jan. 21, 2008. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)
Huh? What has he to "overcome" pray tell? He has achieved the highest office in the land (if not the world), amassed millions, and is on the verge of seeing his wife elected to the same office! How in the world do those lyrics apply to him and his clan?
Not sure if it is quite a fair comparison but he may well have been an American equivalent Gandhi. He fought tough odds and followed his dream.. and used nonviolence to accomplish the task assigned him.
Hey, that’s the first black president you’re talking about.
Why would MLK jr., a great Republican, object to George W. Bush extending civil rights to millions overseas?
GWB is to the world as MLK jr. is to America.
For some reason, those pictures bring to mind how Bush, Kerry, and Dean were all in the same frat at Yale, around the same time. You can’t tell me they didn’t talk about this stuff (their election campaigns) back then.
I’ve been fired up lately and I’m trying to learn some of his lessons.
He’s singing a song with a group of people. Calm down.
You don’t get the irony of it? Blacks are just pawns to Clinton and the democrats. The democrats are the party of: KKK, Copperheads, segregation, Jim Crow, the Confederacy, Dixiecrats, etc...
There he goes again....:) the man is such a silly little jerk.
Yeah....no clintin dynasty.
From what I knew about Martin Luther King, Jr, he claimed to be a gospel minister. I read about Martin Luther King Jr having a prostitute with him in a motel the night he was killed. It was sort of a Jimmy Swaggart thing with him. I think I will never fully understand why someone tried to make him a hero.
” I think I will never fully understand why someone tried to make him a hero.”
Have you read any of his speeches? Do you know anything about him? I helped my high schooler with an essay about MLK Jrs. speeches. I was truly impressed by his message, and by how he motivated such a huge group of people. He wasn’t perfect, but he was a hero.
“... that includes a Mormon, a black man and a Baptist preacher as well as his wife, Hillary Rodham Clinton...”
Hmm Bubba was too modest. I the last one qualifies for diversity under the “evil spawn” category.
I think he’s flirting with her - and she seems thrilled by the attention.
I don't think we need to go down this road. There is a mythology about Dr. King that tends to overlook the fact that, had he lived, he probably would have moved from advocating equality to advocating "social(ist) justice", just like Jesse Jackson and the rest of the "Civil Rights" crowd. After all, he was assassinated while he was supporting a garbage worker's strike that had much more to do with pay and benefit-related issues than with race or mistreatment.
That having been said, it doesn't bother me that even someone like a Rush Limbaugh (who surely knows some of the less desirable facets of MLK's story) chooses to remember sound bites like "people would be judged, not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character", rather than to "deconstruct" the man. After all, Dr. King did put his life on the line to end segregation, and that does qualify as "heroic", no matter what his other personal peccadilloes may have been.
From what I knew about Martin Luther King, Jr, he claimed to be a gospel minister. I read about Martin Luther King Jr having a prostitute with him in a motel the night he was killed. It was sort of a Jimmy Swaggart thing with him. I think I will never fully understand why someone tried to make him a hero.”
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MLK was far from being a saint...he wasn’t a real reverend either. Do a Google search and you’ll be enlightened and very unimpressed with the ‘good’ Reverend.
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