A Tribute to the Kings
As the nation observed its 21st annual Martin Luther King Day on Monday, January 15, I can’t imagine any other city than the slain leader’s birthplace of Atlanta leading the charge of commemorating the civil rights legend who would have celebrated his 78th birthday.
The holiday celebrations began last week with special salutes held coast-to-coast from Los Angeles to Savannah. However for metro-Atlantans the holiday celebration propelled into high gear when famed poet Dr. Maya Angelou recited “A Pledge to Rescue Our Youth” Thursday at the annual King memorial concert held at Dr. King’s alma mater, Morehouse College.
Since then the capitol city has been inundated with an influx of people wishing to express their gratitude and honor the memory of not only Dr. King but Coretta Scott King, the keeper of his dream.
Without Mrs. King’s queenly poised presence, this year’s celebration had a different feel much like something or someone was amiss. Since Dr. King’s assassination it was his wife who personified his dream of social justice. If not for her efforts there would be no King Center for Nonviolent Social Change or a national celebration of MLK Day.
For more than three decades the world had Mrs. King to remind us of the price her husband paid in the name of equality and justice for all.
Her absence at last year’s Ebenezer Baptist Church celebration, some 16 days before her death, seemed to foreshadow her physical absence from the world.
So now as husband and wife lie side by side at Freedom Plaza, ‘MLK Day’ has truly evolved into King Day, celebrating the vision of Martin and the endurance of Coretta.
The dual celebration was evident with Mrs. King being honored posthumously Sunday at the annual Salute to Greatness Dinner, the very same event she made a surprise appearance at last year just prior to her demise.
On Monday it was more than fitting that the Atlanta History Center opened the first public exhibition of Dr. King’s literary papers.
The collection comprises more than 10,000 papers belonging to the orator including his Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech and his early draft of the “I Have a Dream” speech taken from the letter penned while in the Birmingham jail.
The literary collection was purchased from the Sotheby Auction House in 2006 when some 50 donors from a government, corporate, and private collaborative raised $32 million for its purchase which was then donated to Morehouse College.
While many attended the traditional service at Ebenezer Baptist and made the occasional visit to the Kings crypt, thousands of others chose to honor the Kings with volunteer service throughout the nation.
On Monday President G.W. Bush urged Americans, from the nation’s capitol, to take the opportunity to help those in need while Delaware Senator Joseph Biden was pledging his vote to keep the confederate flag off of South Carolina’s capitol.
Meanwhile in Chicago, Rev. Jesse Jackson introduced 2008 presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama as the speaker at the annual Rainbow Coalition/PUSH King scholarship breakfast with these words—it’s a long, nonstop line between the march in Selma in 1965 and the inauguration in Washington in 2009.
Rest in peace Dr. and Mrs. King, rest in peace.
