Martin Luther King Jr.'s Legacy Celebrated

Civil Rights Leader Is Praised For Blazing Trails Against Intolerance, Bigotry And War

(CBS/AP)  Hundreds crowded Martin Luther King Jr.'s Ebenezer Baptist Church on Monday for the U.S. holiday that celebrates the slain civil rights leader and his legacy.

"We would be remiss if we did not commemorate Martin Luther King Jr., a champion of peace in a time of war," said Isaac Newton Farris Jr., a nephew of King.

King was assassinated at age 39 on April 4, 1968, while standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. He would have turned 79 this year.

Farris urged diplomacy, economic incentives and other nonviolent efforts "as an alternative to military intervention to end the war in Iraq."

Former President Bill Clinton, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee and Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin were among the dignitaries attending the ceremony.

The holiday has been observed at Ebenezer Baptist Church - where King preached from 1960 until 1968 - every year since his death.

Clinton told the congregation that King "made the beloved community possible."

"He freed us all to fight the civil rights battle, to fight the poverty battle, to fight all these battles and do it together," Clinton said. "He made a place at the table for all of us."

Clinton noted the diverse presidential race, including his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton, who is running to be the first female U.S. president. Republican Mitt Romney is Mormon, Barack Obama is black, and Mike Huckabee is a former Baptist preacher.

"How cool is it? You know, we've all these different people seeking the presidency," he said. "And guess what? It's all possible because of Martin Luther King's vision of the beloved community."

When Dr. King delivered the immortal "I Have A Dream" speech in 1963, there were just 300 elected black politicians, reports CBS News national correspondent Byron Pitts. Today, there are 9,500 elected African-American politicians.

Former senator John Edwards, one of three Democratic presidential candidates who spoke at today's rally, said Dr. King's example of speaking out against intolerance was just as vital today.

"It is time to not remain unsilent in this war on Iraq, and bring our men and woman home from Iraq," he said. "We can no longer stand silent - it is a betrayal to 37,000,000 people waking up in America with poverty. I did a poverty tour in Marks, Miss., an island of poverty
surrounded by a sea of affluence. We have islands of poverty all over this country. We must turn the corner of shame into a corridor of hope and opportunity for the people of South Carolina."

Senator Hillary Clinton talked about how Dr. King inspired not only Amercians "but people around the world." She recalled how King touched her life and how "we are bound to each other's freedom," and "pledged that we will all finish the work Dr. King began."

"Dr. King didn't back down from the hard work and neither can we. He followed the light of his conscience in the darkest hour and so can we."

In his speech Senator Barack Obama recalled Dr. King's words "Unity is the great need of the hour." The Senator told the crowd that urgency was needed to battle "the moral deficit in America."

"King inspired with words not of anger but of urgency that speaks to us today. Unity is the great need of the hour. In South Carolina, unity is the great need of this hour, not because it sounds nice or makes us feel good but because it's the only way for us to overcome, and the only
way to get rid of the great deficit. Not trade, not new plans, I'm talking about the moral deficit in America."

Also Monday, President George W. Bush hailed King as a towering figure and called on Americans to honor his legacy by showing compassion to those in need.

"It's fitting that we honor his service and his courage and his vision," Bush said during a visit to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library with first lady Laura Bush.

The president said that the federal holiday in King's memory is "an opportunity to renew our deep desire for America to be a land of promise to everybody."

The King holiday holds a new political significance this week because it falls closer to presidential primary elections than in past years, since many states moved up their balloting.

South Carolina, which has a large black electorate in the Democratic primary, votes on Jan. 26. And King's home state, Georgia, will vote on Feb. 5, along with California, New York and 22 other states.

King's actual birthday is Jan. 15, but the federal holiday is observed on the third Monday in January. It has been a national holiday since 1986.

His widow, Coretta Scott King, worked for more than a decade to establish her husband's birthday as a federal holiday. She died in 2006 at age 78.

But there were other observances of the holiday as well.

In the small town of Jena, Louisiana, about 50 demonstrators began assembling, responding to a call from a Mississippi segregationist, for what was billed as a protest against the holiday.

A Jena police officer (see left) checked two shotguns in the back of David Duprey's pickup truck near the LaSalle Parish Courthouse in Jena today, to make sure they were unloaded.

The anti-Martin Luther King Day protest drew about 50 participants - and about 100 counter-demonstrators.

There was at least one arrest when about six black counter-protesters gathered in a semicircle around a podium that had been set up in front of the LaSalle Parish Courthouse by Richard Barrett, leader of the self-described "pro-majority" Nationalist Movement of Learned, Mississippi.

The town has been in the news since six black teens were prosecuted for allegedly beating a white teen, following months of racial tensions at their school. The prosecution sparked a mass protest that drew 20,000 people and reminded many of the U.S. civil rights movement.

And in King of Prussia, Pa., a demonstration jointly commemorated Dr. King's testament to nonviolence and protested the war in Iraq, as activists stood at the entrance to Lockheed Martin, which makes weapons systems. Several protestors were escorted by officers to a police van.

[kailumego1]

Also, I realize and acknowledge the slave trade was not a bulwark of all African societies, for example Ethiopia acknowledged Christianity well before Europeans and considered the %u201CHoly Land, and the Swahili peoples of multi-ethnicities, the Bantu, Meore, Nubian civilizations, etc. I%u2019ve tried to learn as much as I could about Africa that%u2019s why I%u2019ve taken 6 classes in college to understand African culture and the impact of Europeanization on Africans, the continent, its rich economy of valued resources.

[kailumego1]

My only wish is that Africans and African Americans speak out to acknowledge these %u201Cgross%u201D atrocities and change the dynamics within the African and African American paradigm to eliminate the %u201Cxenophobia%u201D, apathy, and discontentment among Africans and African Americans.

Africans and African Americans have contributed so much %u201Cglobally%u201D, in art, metallurgy, music, dance, intellect, etc., so it deeply bothers and disturbs me when I hear of the continuation of violence amongst Africans and African Americans.

But this can only end if more Africans and African Americans speak out loudly, profoundly, and vehemently against this self-degradation.

And if you value Africa, the richly, magnificently, breathtakingly beautiful continent as you%u2019ve so eloquently expressed then you and many like you should be singing tintinnabulations against these atrocities that has plagued this vibrantly culturally rich continent for centuries, millenniums etc.

[kailumego1]

Fleura you''re absolutely correct, Africa is a breathtakingly beautiful continent filled with diverse species of plants, mammals, reptitlians, fowls, etc., along with a mixture of rich heritage of African people.

Africa, the "cradle of civilization", the birthplace of humanity is filled with remarkable histories of tribal societies, Diasporia of Africans migrating into Asia, Europe, North America, etc., and over multi-ethnic groups speaking over 2000 languages.

And you are also correct I''m very passionate about Africa, and it is because of that passion that it deeply troubles me of the history of fractionalization and violence that has transcended onto the African American''s "collective consciousness".

It should bother you as well to see this breathtakingly beautiful continent filled with magnificent splendor and multi-ethnic diversity become collection of negative historical events, e.g. civil war and strife, sectarian violence.

Simiarly, it should also anger African Americans of the fractionalization brooding within the hearts, souls, and minds of individuals and communities.

[fleura-2009]

By the way, there are more people in the continent of African than merely the west coast. Never, never you dare think that all african nations or all blacks for that matter were sold out and emptied out of this beautiful continent into something of slavery!

From the west to the east, from south to north Africa is filled with history and culture, culture and so much more than could image...far beyond european''s history. You need to know this: not all africa was sold or traded into slavery, nor were all europeans thrown out of europe into the americas!

Just be careful with what you read...for anybody could tell a story and stories do take on different versions!!!

[fleura-2009]

You are quite passionate about Africa, it''s a welcoming sight to read of someone so knowlegeable of issues pertaining to Africa. However, the part you are missing and the point you fail to acknoweledge is the Land of African and the People of Africa. The richness in their history and the future that lays ahead for this continent.

Yes there rivalries in all societies, be it here in the states or elsewhere in the world; conflicts are as fundamental as our very human nature but not limited only to the Continent of Africa!

Aids and diseases and diabetes...you name it, or whatever even in your own family is of health issues...same as here it is not limited to one part of the world. We are mortal and our lives as fragile. But beyond our mortality is a spirit that lives on. And whether you know it or not, Africa is more than just a physical place on a map. There is a spirit about the continent of Africa that even the worst natural or human-caused tragedies can''t take away.

The Spirit of Africa lives far deeper than the skin or the suffering of its children!!!

[kailumego1]

And Africans never sold their "own" people, remember, Africans are tribalistic, they most certainly did.

Tribal leaders sold criminals, destitute, poor, and indebted within their community, and when they ran out of Africans to sell, they went out and kidnapped other Africans from rival tribes.

European traders, the Portuguese and Spanish, first Europeans to trade, later on the British, French, etc. built "slave housing" along the Ivory Coast, which tribal leaders would warehouse and store slaves, in exchange for guns and ammunition.

These "slave warehouses" still stand today in Ghana, Benin, etc. as a reminder of "trans-Atlantic slave trade".

And while slavery has been "outlawed" for over a hundred years in America and Europe it still lives and breaths in Africa, e.g. West Africa, in countries like Mali, Mauritania, etc.

[kailumego1]

Fleura your rationalizations of African sectarian violence is predictable, certainly Europeans have contributed to the "escalation" of violence among warring factions, however, Europeans didn%u2019t organize Africans into tribal societies, nor did Europeans create xenophobia amongst Africans.

[kailumego1]

Africa has never been a monolith, but geography of vast wilderness and forestation, isolation, and complex tribal societies. Africa around 3x the size of Europe hold valuable resource commodities, which Europeans have surreptitiously exploited, however, they didn%u2019t create the already existing fractionalization between various groups, but merely capitalize on tribal animosities.

Europeans capitalize on African degradation by supplying guns and ammunition to African leaders in exchange for gold, ivory, and slaves.

Yes Africans willingly kidnapped, sold, and exploited other Africans, in order to gain hegemony over their nemeses.

And the history you eluded too, I%u2019ve learned from reading inserts and essays written by African scholars themselves, not European historians.

For it has been through reading essays written by African scholars that has enlightened me to the mayhem and continuous violence occurring daily in African countries, e.g. South Africa, which by the way has the most violent history of internal struggles between multi-ethnic groups, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo DRC, Angola, Somalia, Kenya, the Central African Republic, Cameroon, Rwanda, Uganda, formerly known as Zaire, Burundi, Benin, Togo, Ghana, Senegal, etc. etc., all 54+ countries.

[kailumego1]

Every country in Africa has been touched with intense violence between various ethnic groups.

And oddly you sought to point out South Africa as "peaceful", AIDS capital of the world [5.5 million], while the percentage of the population is around 30 million, where heartless and savage black South African males rape virgin women and children thinking it will rid them of the AIDS virus.

Where brutal violence has claimed over 200,000 thousand civilians caught in the middle of clashes between political rivals.

You see I understand a lot about the continuous violence in African, the long-standing rivalry, as a result of political factions competing for dominance, rigging elections, intimidating voters, etc., threaten to chop off their hands or other vicious acts of violence.

I get the bulk of my information not from the U.S. media, or European sources, but internationally, through African media, news articles, scholarly essays, etc.

You remind me of black folks in the United States, in extreme denial about the violence perpetrated in black communities always seeking to blame Europeans, but negating to take responsibility themselves.

[fleura-2009]

Dearest Logicanada,

I am as fluent in french as I am in english. Yes, french native as well as american, I am. But do you a favor and speak with fluency in either english or french. I would hate to be thy life partner, if you can''t make your point in a simple written format.

You referred to plasma tv for "poor...family", seemingly it is your own family needing such equipment. Why waste your brains trying to justify your needs in others, be real and understand that "not all blacks are as needy nor as desperate" as you seem to be portraying thy own household.

In a simpler language, it''s called "reverse psycholog".

[logicanada]

Fleura....
hello?

[logicanada]

Fleura...sorry my syntax is a burden on your skills of comprehension.
To your first query, it''s obvious by this post that I''m fluent in the Queen''s English, however French is a second, or to be precise, an optional language.
Secondly, how can you state that I made a ''good point'' yet claim not to understand it?
Thirdly, re: the plasma TV, I was being facetious in the Shakespherian construct mode of juxtaposing the incongruous, and lastly...
I prefer HI-def to plasma. Plasma has a one to three success rate in manufacture, thus the consumer pays for the ''duds''.
I trust this post assuages any thoughts of illiteracy on my part and encourages further communiques.
Oh... and consider yourself...what is the term??...burned"

[fleura-2009]

Logicanada,

Good point but what the heck are you talking about? Do speak it in english or french, but whatever it is make it humanly understandable....okay.

Plasma tv...who the heck watches Fox and still have brains...other than the American Idols''s viewers?

You brother or sister Logicanada, wake up and buy yourself a plasma perhaps you''d be down with it!

[logicanada]

Bill Clinton slept through it...
Hillary, barack and John debated through it...
The Republicans were off the radar through it...probably involved in some think tank to conjure a way to profit from it...say... buy a poor, black family a plasma TV so they can watch FOX all day.
It,s just become a long weekend...admit it.

[fleura-2009]

Because of ethnic divisions caused by the european invasions. African is made up of tribes and ethnic groups, but with europeans'' goald to exploide the continent of its riches, they have and still subdividing africans in self-interest to take the land from its children. Yet robbed this continent of its gold, oil...all natural resources possible, they can''t take away one thing that Europe needs most...the land of Africa. Causing tormoil between these poor tribes and supplying one tribe against another is the only way perhaps to achieve that one goal of robbing the continent and the land of Africa from its children. TELL THAT TO YOUR HISTORIANS AND HAVE THEM REVISE AND WRITE YOU THE TRUTH OF WHY IT IS, STILL THEY CAN''T LEAVE SOUTH AFRICA. No land as rich and continent as promissing and no people as warm-hearted have you and yours ever encountered. Please check with any True European who''s ever traveled into beautiful Africa!!!

[fleura-2009]

Africans never sold their children into slavery...be careful with whatever you read and consider historical...Religious European Invaders, using the hospitality and the loyalty of warm African hearts; entered and were welcomed into this beautiful land of AFRICA. What did they or are they leaving behind after exploring and full expotation of its riches and its greatest assets: its people. They leave nothing but contentions and divisions among once-peaceful african tribes. JUST GET YOUR HEAD STRAIGHT BEFORE YOU DARE CHALLENGE A TRUE AFRICAN!!!!

[fleura-2009]

Nice feedback from you and you...whoever. One Race, One World, One Family: the Human Family...PERIOD.
I suggest you and you do your homework before criticizing the africans, for it''s all european occupations that torment this beautiful place, some of us call home, SWEET HOME AFRICA!!!!!

European have invaded Africa in most recent history, only few centuries ago...same as European invasions and occupations have led Native American out of their tribes and their beloved homeland.

So, you and you...whoever, be careful about whatever you call history, that you and you might have you little minded brains washed with in the past few years of this home of the free you think is only your homeland.

Africa is a proud land for its children back home as well as abroad...PLEASE REVIEW ABIT OF TRUE, TRUE WORLD HISTORY, not from some narrow-minded one-sided historian!!!!

MLK is an offspring of the beautiful and only AFRICA...there is pride in knowing that. Not for minority whatever it is blacks here think his their ethnicity, but for a strong and dominant home of thousands of years in history...none but AFRICAA!!!

[kailumego1]

Fleura, interesting reading a post from an African citizen about the "European racial construct" in America, especially since I''m in the process of reading some 30-40 articles on "violence and bloodshed" in predominately all African countries at the hands of black Africans.

[kailumego1]

It%u2019s almost oxymoronic to hear someone of African origin to dare mention about race, when it was the ancestors of West African tribal leaders that sold other Africans into slavery.

And it is an insult to the memory of Dr. King and others who lived through the struggle and died for the cause of liberty for "African Americans", while it was their African brethren that led the betrayal.

You stated in Africa you don''t worry about race, you''re correct, because most of Africa''s history has consisted of highly fractionalized multi-ethnic groups living in hostile complex societies.

Moreover, it is African factionalism that has left a legacy of "bloodshed, violence, and barbarianism" for blacks in America.

So, you dare to criticize a holiday given to a posthumous leader such as Dr. King, when the ancestors of African Americans were brought to American in chains, in the hollow deck of ship, where they had to eat, sh[it], and sleep in the same quarters, along with being compacted like sardines, so that African tribal leaders could stockpile and horde guns and ammunition to viciously, savagely butcher other Africans.

Try liberating the African continent from the wanton savage acts of violence before you put in your two-cents.

[fleura-2009]

Not sure about this holiday, I am African by birth and in Africa...no need for no civil reforms, no whites, no black, no oriental distinctions; you simply are who you are PERIOD. No minority, no majority or whatever this country calls its ethnicity!!! So sick of all this tra-la-la about races in the states. Just live and be the best you can be irrespective of your ethnic group!!! We are all children of Noah...and of ADAM & EVE...get it you PEOPLE! One race, one world, one family!