King's work unfinished, Atlanta mayor says

updated 3:10 p.m. ET Jan. 15, 2007

ATLANTA - From the pulpit of the church where Martin Luther King Jr. once was pastor, Atlanta’s mayor reminded the congregation Monday that his work for peace and justice remains unfinished.

Mayor Shirley Franklin admonished congregants at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church not to pay tribute to King’s dream on his birthday, observed as a national holiday Monday, and then contradict it the next.

“Millions can’t find jobs, have no health insurance and struggle to make ends meet, working minimum wage jobs. What’s going on?” she said, repeating a refrain from soul singer Marvin Gaye.

“Thousands of black and Latino students drop out of high school believing education will not matter and statistics say it doesn’t because they can’t find jobs. ... What’s going on?”

Earlier in the service, Georgia’s newly elected congressman, Rep. Hank Johnson, paid tribute to King’s children and their late mother, Coretta Scott King, who died nearly a year ago.

“On this day we honor their sacrifice and commitment, and we must carry on their work,” said Johnson, a Democrat. “Today as we salute Dr. King, we also lift up the life and work of Mrs. King who left us last year.”

Many attending the service had earlier walked past the Kings' tombs to get to the church, among them 73-year-old Laura Brown, who said memories of her civil rights past rushed back as she bowed in respect.

She remembered how King and his volunteers taught her the meaning of nonviolent protest. How she learned to withstand taunts and insults. How she gained the strength to stare down the racists who spit in her face. How she built the courage to integrate restaurants and grocery stores, bathrooms and diners.

And how she became an “adopted sister” of Coretta’s who still grieves for the civil rights matriarch.

“She was right here in my heart,” Brown said, clutching her chest. “I’m just right now beginning to absorb it, because her spirit is here.”

Bush: Give back
President Bush, in an unannounced stop at a high school near the White House, said people should honor King on the holiday by finding ways to give back to their communities. Classes were not in session but volunteers were sprucing up the school.

“I encourage people all around the country to seize any opportunity they can to help somebody in need,” Bush said. “And by helping somebody in need you’re honoring the legacy of Martin Luther King.”

In a ceremony Sunday at Ebenezer Baptist Church, King’s eldest daughter evoked the civil rights movement while reminding those remembering her parents that America has not yet reached the promised land of peace and racial equality.

“We must keep reaching across the table and, in the tradition of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, feed each other,” Yolanda King said Sunday during a presentation that was part motivational speech, part drama.

Gene Blythe / AP Laura Brown, right, leads a group past the tombs of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and Coretta Scott King on Monday in Atlanta as they walk to the Ebenezer Baptist Church for King Day commemorative services.

Yolanda King, 51, told The Associated Press the holiday provides an opportunity for everyone to live her father’s dream, and that she has her mother’s example to follow.

“I connected with her spirit so strongly,” she said when asked how she is coping with her mother’s loss. “I am in direct contact with her spirit, and that has given me so much peace and so much strength.”

The stage and television actress performed a series of scenes that told stories including a girl’s first ride on a desegregated bus and a college student’s recollection of the 1963 desegregation of Birmingham, Ala.

After the performance — attended by members of the extended family and Yolanda’s sister, the Rev. Bernice King — Yolanda King and her aunt, Christine King Farris, signed copies of their books, and Bernice King posed for photographs with attendees.

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