MLK's legacy honored with tributes, rallies around nation
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| Rev. Bernice King, daughter of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., speaks during a service honoring King at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King preached, Monday, Jan. 19, 2015, in Atlanta. Rev. Bernice King, urged those gathered to act out against injustice. But she also said they should remember his message of nonviolence. |
ATLANTA (AP)
-- Speakers honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. at his spiritual
home in Atlanta repeated the same message on his national holiday
Monday: We've come a long way, but there's still much to be done to
fulfill King's dream.
The holiday came against
the backdrop of recent national protests over the deaths of unarmed
black men and youths at the hands of the police around the U.S. Some new
protests flared Monday: several dozen demonstrators blocked traffic
while marching in Cleveland, Ohio, and protests also were reported in
St. Louis, Missouri and Seattle, Washington.
In
Atlanta, King's daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, urged those gathered
at Ebenezer Baptist Church for the 47th annual Martin Luther King Jr.
Annual Commemorative Service to act out against injustice. She also said
they should heed her father's message of nonviolence.
"We
cannot act unless we understand what Dr. King taught us. He taught us
that we still have a choice to make: nonviolent coexistence or violent
co-annihilation," she said. "I challenge you to work with us as we help
this nation choose nonviolence." The courage and sacrifice of the civil
rights activists of the 1950s and 1960s provide a model for those
seeking to effect change today, she added.
She
also made reference to the high-profile deaths. Those have included the
deaths of unarmed black men in Ferguson, Missouri, and in New York
City, as well as the fatal shooting of a 12-year-old boy in Cleveland,
Ohio. All three were killed by white officers.
"I
cannot help but remember many women and men who have been gunned down,
not by a bad police force but by some bad actors in a police force," she
said.
The Northeast Ohio Media Group reported
about 60 people gathered Monday at a recreation center where a
Cleveland police officer fatally shot the 12-year-old. Their march ended
at the city's public square and police told the group some arrests were
made.
In Seattle, authorities reported a
handful of arrests after dozens chanting "black lives matter" disrupted
traffic in Seattle, blocking part of a state highway and interstate
off-ramps. Seattle officials advised motorists to take alternate routes
when one side of a key state route was temporarily blocked.
The
deaths have sparked a nationwide debate over police use of force,
further fueled after two New York City police officers were shot to
death last month by a man who suggested in online posts that he was
retaliating for deaths in Missouri and New York. The gunman, who was
black, committed suicide.
The name of the New
York man who died in a white police officer's chokehold was invoked by
some during peaceful tributes in New York.
"We
will move forward as a city. We will move forward to deeper respect for
all," New York Mayor Bill de Blasio vowed at the city's main MLK Day
event in Brooklyn.
Elsewhere, The St. Louis
Post-Dispatch reported that two dozen protesters interrupted a King
event at Harris-Stowe State University in that area, leading to angry
confrontations with students outside a campus auditorium. Police kept
watch, but no arrests were reported.
President
Barack Obama, the nation's first black president, sought to focus on
the next generation. In Washington, Obama and his wife Michelle went
with one of their daughters, Malia, to a site for the Boys and Girls
Clubs of Greater Washington to paint murals and assemble "literacy kits"
of flashcards and books to help youngsters improve their reading and
writing skills.
In Philadelphia, activists
pressed for several social justice causes under the King mantle, saying
they wanted better police accountability, more education funding and a
higher minimum wage. And in Denver some held signs up about the recent
deaths as tens of thousands, including cowboys on horseback, made it one
of the biggest turnouts in years for Denver's event. Drill teams and
floats paraded in Las Vegas under the theme: "Living the Dream: Where Do
We Go From Here?"
In Atlanta, many reflected both on the present and the past.
A
day after he joined other actors from the movie "Selma" and hundreds of
others in Alabama for a march to Selma's Edmund Pettus Bridge - where
civil rights protesters were beaten and tear-gassed in 1965 - actor
David Oyelowo said during the Atlanta commemoration that playing King
was a heavy burden.
He cried as he talked
about putting himself in King's place. "I only stepped into his shoes
for a moment, but I asked myself, `How did he do it?'" Oyelowo said.
U.S.
Rep. John Lewis told the Atlanta crowd he was just 17 when King sent
him a bus ticket to head to Alabama to join the civil rights movement.
Lewis, who marched alongside King, recalled the man he called his hero a
man who is "still a guiding light in my life."
"The memory of such a great man can never, ever fade," Lewis said. "I still think about him almost every day."
