Capital Begins Observance of Martin Luther King Day

Against the backdrop of the Lincoln Memorial, where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech more than 36 years ago, officials in the nation’s capital paused Friday to remember the slain civil rights leader on the eve of his birthday.

King, who was killed in 1968, would have been 71 on Saturday. The federal observance of his birthday is Monday.

“As we embark upon a new millennium we come closer to the reality of Dr. King’s dream,” said Terry Carlstrom, regional director of the National Park Service.

Hundreds of area schoolchildren were on hand for the celebration. A high school choir sang as area officials laid wreaths in King’s honor.

“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is my hero,” Conovia Eddie, a 10-year-old from the District, told the crowd. “Thanks to him I can go to school with kids of different races.”

Not far from the Lincoln Memorial plans are underway for a four-acre memorial to King, the first monument for a black on the National Mall.

“It is a simple dream that he laid out, that one day his four children would live in a nation where they wouldn’t be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character,” said District of Columbia Mayor Anthony A. Williams.

“Each one of us has the power and the courage within ourselves to change our world,” Williams said.

Friday’s celebration in Washington is one of hundreds that will take place around the country through Monday. Another celebration in Washington is scheduled Monday at the new African-American Civil War Memorial Museum.

Perhaps the biggest events will be in Atlanta, King’s hometown, where Housing and Urban Development Secretary Andrew Cuomo will join King’s widow, Coretta, at a weekend service summit at the King Center, where the civil rights leader’s crypt is located. A march in King’s honor Monday will be led by Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes and Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell.