Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders brought a standing-room only crowd to its feet at Ebenezer Baptist Church, calling on the nation’s leaders to advocate Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream instead of simply celebrating it.

“If you honestly believe in what Dr. King stood for then stop the voter suppression,” Sanders said in a rousing speech that touched on themes familiar to those who have followed his career and his recent presidential race.

Sanders said before he was assassinated in 1968, King was not revered as he is today. He was still fighting for the poor and would today be shocked that so many of those same people are behind bars.

“He would join us in saying maybe we should be investing in jobs and education, not jails and incarceration,” Sanders said of King.

He also said it was not acceptable that America, the world’s wealthiest nation, have the highest level of childhood poverty, and that 20 million could lose health insurance if the Affordable Care Act is repealed.

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Healthcare at College Park, a nursing home in Fulton County, GA, stands shuttered with its door chained on July 26, 2025, having closed in recent months.  Researchers at Brown University developed a list of U.S. nursing homes they predicted were at risk of closing based on 2023 data, and would be at elevated risk of closing due to the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act's cuts to Medicaid. Healthcare at College Park was on their list.  It survived past its last federal inspection in August of 2024 but has now closed down. The bill's biggest provisions will roll out over years starting Jan. 1. (Ariel Hart/AJC)

Credit: Ariel Hart