March For Humanity: MLK Funeral Anniversary In Atlanta Marked By City

The emotion expressed by Martin Luther King Jr.’s daughter over the past week showed no signs of letting up on Monday as events surrounding the commemoration of her father’s assassination continued with a service marking the 50th anniversary of her father’s funeral. Bernice King tweeted several photos taken of her and her family just days after the civil rights icon was killed in Memphis.

The service, which took place at the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King preached before his untimely death, was held ahead of the March for Humanity in Georgia’s capital city. A number of Black dignitaries, including civil rights leader and former mayor of Atlanta Andrew Young, took turns honoring King during the service, according to local news outlet WSB-TV. “If you think it was bad now, you should have been there back then,” Young told those in attendance about the racial climate in America.

The March for Humanity was scheduled to begin once the service ended.

“It is fitting that the hometown of one of the world’s greatest advocates for nonviolent social change and peace, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., serve as a catalyst to promote understanding, kindness, respect, and civility on a global scale,” according to the MLK50Forward.com website. “Together we will win by taking action as we assemble to unite in expressing concern and commitment to change the ‘state of our nation’ and ‘state of the world’.”

The march’s route ends at Liberty Plaza, which the Atlanta Journal Constitution reminded was located “across Capitol Avenue from the bronze statue of Martin Luther King Jr. that was dedicated last August on the Capitol grounds.”

Bernice King said how the past week hasn’t been easy.

“This is a very emotional time for me and my family,” she said before the 50^th anniversary of her father’s assassination last week in Memphis. “[Rev. King] challenged us by saying that we must learn to live together as brothers, and I add sisters, or together we will be forced to perish as fools.”

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