ATLANTA — The nation took time to remember the man known as a drum major for peace -- the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. -- on the 56th anniversary of his assassination.
Ceremonies are being held all over the country on Thursday to celebrate his life and his legacy for nonviolence.
Martin Luther King III and his family visited the site of the assassination at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, which is now the National Civil Rights Museum, while his only surviving sibling led a wreath-laying ceremony with family at the King Center, where he and his wife Coretta Scott King are buried.
“Even though my father was assassinated, it’s not the fact he was assassinated, it’s what assassinated him. You know, what he was doing when he was assassinated. What he was fighting for economically,” daughter Dr. Bernice King, CEO of the King Center, said.
Bernice King was just 5 years old when her father was assassinated. It was one of the darkest moments in history.
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“‘Darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that,’” Alveda King said, quoting Martin Luther King Jr. “And so, we have to overcome, stop fighting each other on social media and come with some solutions of love.”
Dr. King was in Memphis helping sanitation workers rally for better wages and safer working conditions. The civil rights icon delivered one of his most powerful speeches – “I’ve been to the mountaintop” -- the day before he was killed.
Thursday’s wreath-laying ceremony celebrates the life and legacy of Atlanta’s native son and gives younger generations an opportunity to learn more about his contributions and his nonviolent fight for civil rights.
“I want them to remember that important lesson that it’s not just about acknowledging the day of the assassination, but it’s about drawing strength from the work that he was doing and the work that we have to continue doing because the triple evils, poverty, racism and militarism, are ever present and obviously more than now than ever before in our world,” Bernice King said.
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