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Sunday, February 5, 2006
John Lewis: King Center ‘belongs to the ages’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
U.S. Rep. John Lewis, (R-Ga.) a lieutenant to Dr. Martin Luther King during civil rights struggle, said Sunday that he hopes the King family will transfer the King Center to the federal government.
“It is my belief that the King Center and the work of Dr. and Mrs. King belongs to the ages,� Lewis said after speaking at the Glenn Memorial Methodist Church at Emory University. “The center is bigger than just the birth family. It belongs to America.�
Lewis said he has heard nothing concrete about the future of the center since Coretta Scott King died.
“I hope the children transfer it to the government of America,� Lewis said. “I hope this can be an impetus for moving things along.�
Lewis noted that President Bush and former Presidents Carter and Clinton will attend the Tuesday funeral service. Having the current and several former presidents at a funeral for a non-president “is unheard of,� Lewis said, adding that “at least two planes filled with congressmen� will come to the funeral.
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King’s life likened to musical notes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Coretta Scott King’s life moved like musical notes.
There were high ones of success, and grace and beauty said her friends and family at Ebenezer Baptist Church Sunday morning during a service punctuated with songs of hope and reflection.
There were low ones of threats and bombings during the civil rights struggle, the murder of her husband Martin Luther King Jr. and her recent illnesses.
Whether difficult or easy, she sang her part without fail and perhaps with more feeling because of her experiences, her family said.
“When my mother died, she made a special attempt to be my friend. And when I was sick, she was one of the first persons to show concern about me,” brother-in-law Isaac Farris said between services.
Vernice Tuggle, a friend and church member, recalled that Mrs. King, despite her stature and her association with the powerful and important, remained approachable by those who wanted to shake her hand or say a few words. Each year, Mrs. King organized a reception for those who had worked at the annual church commemoration of her husband’s life and work.
“She was just a beautiful person and spirit. That was Coretta,” Tuggle said.
And she was well-remembered during the service, from calls for prayer for the family to the home-coming anthem played by the Ebenezer Instrumental Ensemble “Swing Low, Sweek Chariot”
Rev. Raphael Warnock told the crowd that gathered, “She never lost hope.”
She didn’t lose it through the marches and the arrests.
She didn’t lose it when their work was misunderstood or misrepresented, or through her recent illnesses.
When he last saw her recently, she was “physically frail, but spiritually strong,” he said.
Warnock said Mrs. King, who had studied music in college, understood and perservered in her role.
“It is not at all surprising that when God got ready to do something, to raise up a prophet in the 20th century … who would shake up the nation and the world, that God decided to send that prophet a songstress,” Warnock said.
“Through the dark days and nights, she was his song,” he said.
“What was the song? It was a song of love.”
And after King’s murder, she continued playing her part, speaking out and helping direct the King Center.
“When God needed someone to sing about justice, he sent us Martin,” he said.
“And then he sent Martin Coretta. And she kept on singing.”
“We want to thank God today that she made certain that the melody would linger long after he left,” Warnock said.
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Sermon recalls preacher wife, crusader
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The phases of Coretta Scott King’s life, first as a private supporter of her husband, then a public witness to his work, was the sermon theme Sunday during services at Marietta’s First United Methodist Church.
“She signed on to be the wife of a Baptist preacher,” said senior Pastor Sam Matthews. “It was supposed to be a sort of uneventful life at Dexter Avenue Baptist and then Rosa Parks couldn’t get up on a bus that day and a group gathered to support her and when her husband was elected spokesperson of that group Coretta King’s life changed.”
Still, Matthews told a near-capacity crowd, Coretta King saw her ministry as a private one supporting her husband. Even after their home was bombed and their lives threatened she was the one who stayed in the background, raising her children and offering comfort to her husband.
Only later, when she wrote of her life, did the world learn of the inner struggles she dealt with, Matthews said.
“She wrote about the letters and the phone calls, about her house being bombed while her children were there,” Matthews said. “She saw her husband in jail, she saw him stabbed and then assassinated.”
After he husband’s death in 1968 Coretta King “took on a public mantle,” he said.
“I don’t know if she was ever comfortable with that role and I guess the future will be the judge of how successful she was, but she was called into an arena to which she did not asked to be called.”
After the service former Gov. Roy Barnes, a parishioner at the church, remembered his last visit with King prior to her stroke.
“She was a lady full of grace,” said Barnes. “She met great tragedy and was an example to all of us of how to deal with tragedy.” Barnes, who said he plans to attend King’s funeral on Tuesday, said the days of mourning provide an opportunity for everyone to reflect “on how we can change the community for better like she did.”
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Street closings Monday for viewing
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The viewing of Coretta Scott King’s body Monday at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Auburn Avenue will affect traffic in the surrounding area for the entire day.
City officials have announced that the following streets will be closed Monday from 7 a.m. until midnight: Auburn Avenue from Bell Street to Old Wheat Street; Jackson Street from Irwin Street to Edgewood Avenue; Fort Street from Edgewood to Auburn; Old Wheat Street from Hilliard Street to Jackson Street.
Atlanta police are expecting the event to draw a high volume of vehicles and pedestrians and are urging the public to use MARTA. The King Center stop on the eastern MARTA line is a short stroll away.
The viewing lasts from 10 a.m. until midnight at the historic church next to the King Center.
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Ebenezer worshippers celebrate King’s life
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
After a rousing rendition of the black national anthem, “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” stirred worshippers at Ebenezer Baptist Church on Sunday, the congregation paused to mourn the loss of Coretta Scott King — who remained a faithful member until her death.
Standing in the pulpit of the church’s Horizon Sanctuary — across the street from the original Ebenezer, where King was a pastor, with his father, from 1960 to 1968 — the Rev. Raphael Warnock thanked King for her intelligence, beauty, courage and wisdom.
“Praise God for Coretta Scott King,” Warnock said. “Let the heavens rejoice for the witness of our sister.”
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference/W.O.M.E.N. planned a King tribute for Sunday afternoon in the Heritage Sanctuary, located in the original Ebenezer Baptist Church, a couple of blocks from the house where Martin Luther King Jr. was born.
On Monday night, King will be remembered in the Horizon Sanctuary by several civil rights leaders in a service expected to include the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Congressman John Lewis, Ambassador Andrew Young and the Rev. Joseph Lowery.
“It’s the least we can do for the many sacrifices she made,” Warnock said. “It is fitting for us to honor her. We join with people all over the world in celebration of her life.”
King’s body will lie in honor in Ebenezer’s Heritage Sanctuary all day Monday.
Officials estimated 42,000 mourners filed past her open casket Saturday in the state Capitol’s rotunda, where King lay in honor. She was the first woman and the first black person to lie in honor there, in striking contrast to the official snub her slain husband was given by then-Gov. Lester Maddox, an outspoken segregationist.
President Bush and First Lady Laura Bush lead a list of dignitaries expected to attend her funeral Tuesday in Lithonia, Ga.
Coretta Scott King died Jan. 30 at age 78.
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‘Heavens rejoice’ for King’s service
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hundreds mourned the loss of Coretta Scott King at the Sunday services of Ebenezer Baptist Church, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. preached in the 1960s and the civil rights matriarch remained a member until her death.
“Praise God for Coretta Scott King, let the heavens rejoice for the witness of our sister,” the Rev. Raphael Warnock said after a rousing rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” stirred the congregation.
A tribute to King also was planned Sunday in the historically black Atlanta neighborhood where her late husband was born.
On Saturday, thousands of mourners poured into the Georgia Capitol rotunda to pay tribute to King, the first woman and the first black person to lie in honor in what once was once a seat of segregation.
King, known as the “first lady of the civil rights movement,” died Monday at age 78. She had been at an alternative medicine clinic in Mexico, where doctors said she was battling advanced ovarian cancer. She also had been recovering from a serious stroke and heart attack.
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