McCain to Recognize MLK Today

By: Andante Higgins
Topics: John McCain

(CBS)

From CBS News' Dante Higgins:

John McCain is taking a break from his biographical tour today to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. McCain was a prisoner of war in Vietnam when King was assassinated in 1968 and has a checkered history of recognizing King's legacy.

McCain will speak to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in Memphis, Tenn. and had been scheduled to lay a wreath at the Civil Rights Museum which is at the Lorraine Hotel where King was shot.

"Dr. King stirred the conscience of our nation to ensure that the self-evident truths of human freedom held true for all Americans," McCain said in a written statement. "The power of his work and vision was not ended forty years ago in Memphis. Across the world, men and women are living Dr. King's dream as they strive to extend the blessings of human liberty and human rights to all. Today, we mark a tragic day in our nation's history while honoring the work of a man who was the voice for our nation's highest ideals."

While McCain will spend his day in Memphis, in January on King's birthday, skipped MLK-related events.

McCain supports the holiday now but didn't always. In the early '80s, he fought against making it a state holiday in his home state of Arizona saying at the time he didn't see the need for another holiday, especially when there were presidents who didn't have their own holidays.

He now says he didn't know King and he didn't truly understand the issue of recognizing his holiday.

"I was in prison when they announced over the loudspeaker in my cell - I was living by myself - that Dr. Martin Luther King had been assassinated. They always told us the very bad news and somehow avoided telling us of a very minor event as landing a man on the moon. I didn't find that out until a couple of years after the event itself," McCain said in Janaury.

"So I didn't know Dr. King. I was a member of the military, I didn't know him. Obviously I admire him as all Americans do," he said.