Make King's 'dream' come true, Americans urged

Arms locked together, Martin Luther King’s relatives, other civil rights leaders, and officials belted out We Shall Overcome during a joyous celebration of the civil rights leader’s life.

During the ceremony in Atlanta, the Georgia state Capitol, they urged Americans to spend the King holiday on Monday making real his vision of racial equality.

“Let’s make Georgia the beacon of hope to illuminate the path to that dream,” said King’s nephew, Isaac Newton Farris.

Georgia governor Sonny Perdue echoed his call. “It’s just as much our calling as it was his,” he said. “May we leave behind a trail so bright that others can see.”

The governor received a standing ovation after Farris thanked him for opening the Capitol last year to a public viewing of the body of King’s wife, Coretta Scott King, who died last February. She was the first woman and first black person to lie in honour in what once was a seat of segregation.

Others spoke of King’s impact on their lives. State Rep Al Williams, who chairs Georgia’s Legislative Black Caucus, told the crowd how King inspired him to seek elected office.

He was a high-school sophomore spending time at the local Southern Christian Leadership Conference branch in coastal Georgia when King stopped in to practise a speech about a certain dream he had.

“And all of us were dreaming before he left the room,” Williams said.

Later, a group of human rights activists from the US and Africa laid a white flower wreath at the tomb of King and his wife during a five-minute ceremony at The King Centre’s reflecting pool.

King was the most visible leader of the civil rights struggle in the southern states leading boycotts, protests, and marches that climaxed with his “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered from the Lincoln Memorial at the 1963 March on Washington.

He was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968 on a visit to support black refuse collectors’ demands for higher wages and fair treatment.