Prayer, Marches Today Will Mark King’s Legacy

The legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was remembered by people from all walks of life as they prepared to honor the slain civil rights leader today with speeches, prayer and marches.

“He taught us physical characteristics, racial or sexual, simply do not determine a person’s worth, or value. Many of our laws, dealing with the handicapped, sexual discrimination, and so forth, are all legacies of King,” said U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson of Montgomery, Alabama’s second black federal judge.

King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968. Had he lived, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate would have been 59 on Friday. Today is the third observance of an annual national holiday in his honor.

One of the largest observances was planned in his hometown of Atlanta, including a parade, a wreath-laying at his tomb, and a service at Ebenezer Baptist Church where King and his father preached, and where his mother, Alberta King, was assassinated in 1974.

Today’s activities in Atlanta conclude eight days of “King Week” observances sponsored by the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, where he is buried and where his widow, Coretta Scott King, serves as president.

Sunday’s schedule was highlighted by a conference on nonviolent alternatives for social change in racist South Africa, and an address to students by Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass.), the oldest son of the late Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, assassinated in the same turbulent year as King.