Clinton Leads Martin Luther King Salute

Leading Monday’s nationwide observance of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, President Clinton invoked the slain civil rights leader’s sermons on the need for nonviolent change as a template for world leaders to follow.

Sounding at times like a preacher himself, Clinton took to the pulpit of Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King family ministers have long led religious services. Flanked by King’s widow, Coretta, and his son, Dexter, Clinton praised King as a man of peace “who challenged us to face our flaws and to become a better nation, to use our great power in the service of peace and justice.”

His appearance at the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change’s annual ceremony--considered the main observance of the 10-year-old national holiday--allowed Clinton to accomplish two things: pay homage to King and accept a public show of support among black Americans as the presidential election approaches.

Underscoring his large following among black leaders, Clinton was praised repeatedly by local officials and religious figures during the 3 1/2-hour ceremony. Drawing applause and shouts when his name was mentioned, Clinton beamed at the support extended by the estimated 1,500 people crammed into the church.

After being introduced by Dexter King, Clinton stepped to the podium as the congregation chanted “Four more years!”

In comments that generally steered clear of partisan politics, Clinton veered widely from foreign policy to domestic issues as he attempted to tie the incomplete agenda of his three years in office to King’s unfulfilled American dream of justice and racial harmony.

“I’m glad that in the last three years, the crime rate and the welfare rolls and the food stamp rolls and poverty rate and the teen pregnancy rates are all down,” Clinton said. “I’m proud of that. But, here’s what I think Dr. King would say if he were giving this sermon. . . . ‘You’re doing better, but that’s not nearly enough, and don’t do anything which will make [social policies] worse. Keep going in the right direction.’ ”

Clinton said his trip last weekend to visit U.S. peacekeeping troops serving with allied forces in Bosnia was in keeping with King’s personal wish to be eulogized as a “drum major for justice.”

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“We must be the world’s drum majors for peace,” Clinton said of global leaders. “That’s the role that our troops and their allies from over 20 other countries--including countries that we were enemies with in the Cold War--are playing in Bosnia. That’s what we’re trying to do in helping the Catholics and Protestants get together in Northern Ireland. That’s what we’re trying to do in working with the Arabs and Jews in the Middle East.”

Similarly, Clinton cited his work with South African President Nelson Mandela as “an honor, not a burden.”

Turning to domestic issues, Clinton declared: “If the nation’s job is to be drum majors for peace and justice around the world, surely, surely, that must be our responsibility here at home.”

He said that he wants to balance the federal budget and end a debate that has led to two partial government shutdowns. But, he added: “We have to balance the budget in a balanced way that recognizes we are all in this together. The challenge of this time is to go forward together.”

In one of the few partisan comments during the church ceremony, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), criticized the leadership of today’s social activists.

“If Martin Luther King Jr. had the power and the capacity to inspire young children and old women and men in Birmingham to stand up and face police dogs, fire hoses and Bull Connor, to face Sheriff Clark in Selma, to face George Wallace in Alabama, we should have the courage to stand up and face Newt Gingrich here in Georgia,” Lewis said.

In an oblique reference to Republican attacks on First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton, Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell offered the president some advice. “Mr. Clinton, tell Mrs. Clinton to stay strong,” Campbell said, eliciting a standing ovation from those in the packed church. “We’re not going to let them attack her either.”

King, who would have been 67 Monday, was slain April 4, 1968. His birthday was made a federal holiday in 1986.

Former U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders, at one of the nation’s many observances Monday, said that more work is needed to turn King’s dream into reality.

“He left us the movement that we shall overcome, but I’m not sure we’ve overcome,” Elders told a crowd of about 4,000 at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “We still have a long way to go.”

Several hundred people marched through downtown Memphis, Tenn., to the National Civil Rights Museum, built around the Lorraine Motel, where King was assassinated.

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Others gathered at a Memphis park named for King beside the Mississippi River. “I grew up in this neighborhood, but I couldn’t even come up in this park,” said resident Aretha King. “Now my grandchildren can play here.”

In St. Louis, teacher Marabeth Gentry said this year’s observance was tinged with sadness.

“It seems like we are going backward instead of forward,” Gentry said. “But they say sometimes you have to step back before you can move forward.”

Boston University, where King received a doctorate in theology in 1955, held a music program in his honor Monday. In North Carolina, a group of community activists kicked off the King holiday Sunday night with a candlelight vigil to remember all the young people murdered in Charlotte over the last eight years. The group, Stop the Killing, lighted 117 candles--one for each of the children murdered since 1988--and prayed that other young people would follow King’s teachings of nonviolence.

Times wire services contributed to this story.

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