Atlanta plans a wreath-laying and a number of virtual events are planned elsewhere Sunday to commemorate the anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death in 1968.
Fifty-three years ago today, King was struck down by an assassin’s bullet outside a Memphis motel room.
To honor his legacy and commemorate the 53rd anniversary of his death, the King family will lay a wreath at his tomb this afternoon.
The event will be held at 1:30 p.m. at the King Center Reflecting Pool along Auburn Avenue.
The King Center — its full name is the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change Inc. — is a nonprofit organization established in 1968 to continue King’s work and legacy.
Virtual commemorations today
The anniversary of King’s death falls on Easter this year, and events are planned across the country this holiday to commemorate the life and martyrdom of the civil rights great.
At 7 p.m., a group of well-known activists and organizers are hosting a webinar and panel discussion where speakers will recite King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech calling for an end to the war in Southeast Asia. The speech was delivered April 4, 1967, exactly one year before his assassination. During the address King called for an end to racism, poverty and militarization by highlighting that Americans were being killed overseas while trying to guarantee certain rights they didn’t have at home.
“We were taking the Black young men who had been crippled by our society and sending them 8,000 miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in southwest Georgia and East Harlem,” King famously said.
The National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Hotel, where King was shot in Memphis, plans a virtual commemoration this afternoon. “Remembering MLK: The Man. The Movement. The Moment” will be broadcast at 6 p.m. and will feature the Rev. James Lawson, a key King ally.
In addition, the National Center for Civil and Human Rights offers a digital exhibit through April 9, about King’s concept of the “beloved community” called We Share the Dream: King’s Beloved Community.
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