King Day Service Links Recent Protests With Civil Rights Movement
Crowds came to the King Center yesterday to observe the Martin Luther King Day holiday. About 1,000 people packed into Ebenezer Baptist Church for a morning service.
Rep. John Lewis struck a personal note at the ceremony, as he read a letter he said he would have written to Dr. King today.
“I don’t know what would have happened to me, a barefooted boy from Alabama,” Lewis said. “I would have been lost. You saved my life. You have redeemed more than just a people, but an entire nation.”
Lewis was beaten in Selma in 1965 when advocating for voting rights.
King’s daughter Rev. Bernice King connected those events to recent protests.
“We know that if we are going to honor the sacrifices and the courage of those who have gone before, we still have work to do,” she said.
After speeches, prayer and gospel music, keynote speaker Gwendolyn Boyd, president of Alabama State University, took the pulpit. She recalled the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, for which there was no conviction.
“Fast forward. 2014,” she said. “No conviction for the man who murdered Trayvon Martin. No indictment for the man who murdered Michael Brown. No indictment for the man who we saw murder Eric Garner. No indictment for the one who killed Tamir Rice.”
Others at the event included Sen. Johnny Isakson, Mayor Kasim Reed and David Oyelowo, the actor who played King in the movie “Selma.”
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