They danced in the streets, wept, lifted their voices in prayer and brought traffic to a standstill.

Barack Obama today called for unity to overcome the country’s problems as he acknowledged that “none of our hands are clean” when it comes to healing divisions.

Hundreds gathered to mourn Yolanda “Yoki” Denise King, the eldest daughter of the American civil rights campaigner Rev Martin Luther King Jr.

Four US presidents, senators, celebrities and thousands of mourners filled a Lithonia, Georgia church today to say goodbye to Coretta Scott King, praised by President George Bush as “one of the most admired Americans of our time.”

A light aircraft hit a car body shop and crashed near the birthplace of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, killing both elderly people aboard.