Services to Mark Martin Luther King’s 75th Birthday
By LOUISE CHU
ATLANTA (AP) — Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday tribute last week was marked by discord, with hundreds protesting President Bush’s visit to the slain civil rights leader’s tomb.
Organizers of ceremonies honoring the federal holiday for King were hoping for a bit more harmony. On Monday, thousands were expected to gather and listen as King’s son, Martin Luther King III, president of the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change, kicks off the annual commemorative service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where his father preached until his assassination in 1968.
On King’s birthday Thursday, about 800 protesters rallied against Bush’s visit to the tomb on what would have been King’s 75th birthday.
Beating drums and chanting, “Peace, not war; that’s what Martin stood for!” and “Bush, go home!,” many of the protesters said Bush’s policies on the Iraq war, affirmative action and social service funding directly contradicted King’s legacy.
The anti-war message was to be prominent again on Monday.
King’s widow, who urged world leaders to avoid an impending war in Iraq during her remarks at last year’s service, said she would address the issue again. Coretta Scott King has continued to speak out in opposition to the war, promoting her late husband’s principles of nonviolence.
The daylong celebration of King’s birthday were to include memorials, church services and volunteer projects around the country. Organizers of holiday events have long emphasized the importance of community service in their annual King Day theme of “Remember! Celebrate! Act! A Day On… Not a Day off.”
An annual march through Atlanta’s historic Sweet Auburn district, where King grew up, was planned for the afternoon, and more than 15,000 people were expected to eat at the Hosea Williams Feed the Hungry dinner at Turner Field. Williams, one of King’s first lieutenants in the civil rights battle, died in 2000 after a battle with cancer.
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