Widow Unveils Bust of King for Capitol

A bust of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who gave his life “transforming dreams into realities,” now stands in the Capitol Rotunda as a permanent reminder “of our moral obligation to civil rights,” King’s widow said Thursday in an emotionally charged unveiling ceremony.

Strong applause from more than 1,000 people echoed under the Capitol’s great dome as Coretta Scott King, surrounded by sculptures of Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, dedicated the three-foot solid bronze bust of the slain civil rights leader.

Statue to Be Moved

The bust, the first of an American black to be enshrined in the Capitol’s hall of heroes, will be moved in several months to Statuary Hall near the former House chamber.

Later, President Reagan met separately with Mrs. King and Aminda Wilkins, the widow of former NAACP director Roy Wilkins. Reagan urged civil rights leaders to “never, never abandon the dream” of a colorblind America.

The unveiling ceremony was part of a weeklong, nationwide series of commemorative events that will climax Monday when Americans observe the first official national holiday devoted to a black leader.

Nation’s Greatest Strength

Flanked by her four grown children, Mrs. King spoke with a slow, steady voice while describing an America whose “greatest strength is in its pluralism and respect for all people.”

Of her husband, who was assassinated in 1968, she declared: “He was our friend, our father, our brother and our leader.”

In 1963, exactly 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect, Martin Luther King Jr. faced the same Rotunda from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and told the 250,000 people assembled on the Mall that he had a dream that Americans would overcome racism and unite when “all Americans will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.”

And if he were still alive, Mrs. King said, “he would have been in the forefront in protecting the weakest and the most vulnerable among us.” Noting that “we have much work yet to do,” she said she also “looks to the Congress for compassionate leadership.”

Commissioned by Congress

Boston sculptor John Wilson received a $50,000 congressional commission last April to create the likeness, which depicts King in a somber, reflective mood and clothed in a suit and tie. The bust is mounted on a 5 1/2-foot pedestal.

In a message sent to the Congress on Racial Equality on Thursday in New York, Reagan praised those “who picked up the banner that fell 18 years ago from the hands of slain Dr. King. . . . To them I say, never, never abandon the dream. Never forget that this is America, the land where dreams come true.”