Hundreds of people gathered at a union headquarters Wednesday morning hours before a march marking the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee.
Workers at the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees office chanted, banged drums and held signs saying “I Am” — one of the slogans for events surrounding the anniversary of King’s death. One man hauled a cart full of commemorative T-shirts he was selling for $10.
Andre Gipson, the local president for the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, says about 400 members from other cities are in Memphis for the march. He says the march promised to be a “very special” event for workers.
People were bundled up on a chilly yet sunny morning.
The commemorations stretch from his hometown of Atlanta to Memphis, where he died, and points beyond. Among the first events was a march led by the same sanitation workers union whose low pay King had come to protest when he was shot. Another event kicked off about the same time in Atlanta, where King’s daughter the Rev. Bernice A. King is moderating an awards ceremony in his honor.
The Memphis events are scheduled to feature King’s contemporaries, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, along with celebrities such as the rapper Common. In the evening, the Atlanta events culminate with a bell-ringing and wreath-laying at his crypt to mark the moment when he was gunned down on the balcony of the old Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968. He was 39.
Wednesday’s events followed a rousing celebration the night before of King’s “I’ve Been To the Mountaintop” speech at Memphis’ Mason Temple Church of God in Christ. He delivered this speech the night before he was assassinated.
Inside the church, Bernice King called her older brother, Martin Luther King III, to join her in the pulpit, and she discussed the difficulty of publicly mourning their father — a man hated during his lifetime, now beloved around the world.
“It’s important to see two of the children who lost their daddy 50 years ago to an assassin’s bullet,” said Bernice King, now 55. “But we kept going. Keep all of us in prayer as we continue the grieving process for a parent that we’ve had yet to bury.”
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(Associated Press, copyright 2018)
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