By ERRIN HAINES WHACK, ADRIAN SAINZ and KATE BRUMBACK, AP
MEMPHIS, Tenn.
Fifty years after a shot rang out in Memphis, killing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., freedom rang from the balcony of the Lorraine Motel as a bell tolled 39 times to mark a life cut short by racism.
[post_ads]King died among the most hated men in America, but Wednesday, admirers grateful for his life and legacy mourned his loss and pledged to carry on his unfinished work to end racial injustice and economic inequality
“Nothing would be more tragic than for us to stop at this point,” said the Rev. William Barber, who will renew King’s Poor People Campaign this spring. “We must go up together or go down together. What he said then is what we must do now.”
A host of tributes to the slain civil rights leader were held across the country. At the epicenter was Memphis, where King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while in town for a sanitation workers’ strike. The dignity of the workers paralleled this year’s anniversary, with teachers in Oklahoma and Kentucky walking out of schools to push for more funding.
The triple evils of racism, poverty and war that King hammered at the end of his life linger — from economic, educational, housing and health disparities to the looming threat of nuclear war. Both the speakers and marchers of the day pledged their commitment to picking up King’s mantle.
Fifty years after a shot rang out in Memphis, killing the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., freedom rang from the balcony of the Lorraine Motel as a bell tolled 39 times to mark a life cut short by racism.
King died among the most hated men in America, but Wednesday, admirers grateful for his life and legacy mourned his loss and pledged to carry on his unfinished work to end racial injustice and economic inequality
“Nothing would be more tragic than for us to stop at this point,” said the Rev. William Barber, who will renew King’s Poor People Campaign this spring. “We must go up together or go down together. What he said then is what we must do now.”
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A host of tributes to the slain civil rights leader were held across the country. At the epicenter was Memphis, where King was assassinated on April 4, 1968, while in town for a sanitation workers’ strike. The dignity of the workers paralleled this year’s anniversary, with teachers in Oklahoma and Kentucky walking out of schools to push for more funding.
The triple evils of racism, poverty and war that King hammered at the end of his life linger — from economic, educational, housing and health disparities to the looming threat of nuclear war. Both the speakers and marchers of the day pledged their commitment to picking up King’s mantle.
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