Reagan, Mrs. King Lead Off Holiday Events

The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was commemorated Tuesday in ceremony and song, including a White House celebration in which King’s widow rebuked President Reagan as not doing enough to help the nation’s poor.

Reagan signed a proclamation honoring the 59th anniversary of the civil rights leader’s birth on Jan. 15 and declared that “the fight for genuine equality of opportunity goes on. It still continues for many Americans today.

“Yet let us not ignore,” said Reagan, “the strides that have been made and the great strides that are being made toward ending discrimination and bigotry in our towns and communities, in our government and, most importantly, in our own hearts.”

Reagan said that King “gave his life, as so many of our forefathers did, for his principles. And it is thanks to his strength of character and his God-given talents that the dream that he spoke about so eloquently will live on forever.”

Mrs. King Honored

The ceremony was one of several preceding the Monday observance of the federal holiday. As several others, including King associate Ralph David Abernathy, looked on, the President presented Coretta Scott King with a commemorative pen. Later, she took issue with Reagan’s claim of “great strides.” To a question of what the President could do in his last year in office as a tribute to her husband, she replied: “The least thing that he could do is call for the Congress and the private sector to provide some resources for the poor people of this country. . . . We have too many poor people in this country, too many people who go to bed hungry at night, too many with no food and no place to sleep. This is really a disgrace.”

Earlier, she and Housing Secretary Samuel R. Pierce Jr. and other officials attended a ceremony in which a 500-pound time capsule containing mementoes of Dr. King’s work was buried in a Pennsylvania Avenue plaza two blocks east of the White House. The capsule is to be opened in 2088.

Time-Capsule Remarks

“My husband said a people must know their history before they can know their direction or their destiny,” King told the crowd of about 1,000, which included schoolchildren. “These materials are not merely artifacts. They are a living testament to the power of love.”

Among the items in the capsule are Dr. King’s Bible, a robe and other personal items, taped tributes from world leaders, copies of books and speeches he wrote and a miniature Liberty Bell inscribed with the names of thousands of his American admirers.