Officials, Children Recall King Speech

The voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. rang out once more at the Lincoln Memorial on Friday as government officials and schoolchildren joined in a birthday observance highlighted by a recording of the slain civil rights leader’s “I have a dream” speech.

“As we stand here again in the place where he stood, we can feel his presence,” James M. Ridenour, director of the National Park Service, told a crowd of several hundred assembled in chilly, windy weather at the memorial.

King was shot to death on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tenn. Had he lived, he would be 61 on Monday. His speech at the memorial was the climax of a civil rights march in 1963.

Effi Barry, wife of District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry, blinked back tears as the recording came to the climax of King’s speech, ending with the words, “free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, we are free at last.”

Later, Mrs. Barry joined Ridenour and two children representing District of Columbia schools in laying three floral wreaths at the memorial in honor of King.

Earlier, Interior Secretary Manuel Lujan Jr. told an overflow crowd in the 850-seat Interior Department auditorium, “If Dr. King were alive today, he would be marching hand in hand in the war against drugs, fighting to stop the next generation from destroying itself.

“There are no opportunities for people addicted to drugs. There is no dream,” Lujan said. “There is only the nightmare of the fatal consequences of drug use.”