Prayers, Promises, Protests Mark King Holiday

Americans joined in prayers and protests Monday to keep alive Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of equal justice and brotherhood in activities commemorating the 60th birthday of the slain civil rights leader.

In Philadelphia, NAACP Executive Director Benjamin J. Hooks and W. Wilson Goode, the city’s first black mayor, tapped the glass enclosure of the Liberty Bell in a symbolic ringing at noon.

The cracked bell could not be struck, but another bell nearby was sounded, and bells across the nation took up the pealing to honor King’s “Let Freedom Ring” theme.

At a prayer breakfast before a mostly black audience in Washington, President-elect Bush spoke of King as a “great gift” from God, and he pledged to work for full equality and justice.

President Reagan took no part in the formal observances Monday.

Service at King Church

In an ecumenical service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King was pastor with his father, religious and political leaders prayed, sang and reminisced about the civil rights leader and his nonviolent movement against racial segregation in the United States.

“Every birthday was a milestone in God’s allotted time,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson said. “He spent it planning to fight for justice.”

Jackson marched with King during the turbulent days of the movement in the 1960s. He was with King when the preacher was shot to death in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968, at the age of 39.

King would have been 60 on Sunday. His assassin, James Earl Ray, is serving a life sentence.

The federal holiday Monday was also recognized by the states, except for Arizona, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho, South Dakota and New Hampshire.

“Dr. King was not an idealist,” Jackson said. “He was a realist with high ideals, and there is a difference.”

Jane Fonda Reading

Actress Jane Fonda joined in the reading of a litany of commemoration entitled, “Let My People Go.”

Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh told the church audience that King was “a giant in the pageant of Americans who have struggled for freedom and human dignity.”

“Through his beliefs and dreams, he set out to reach a Promised Land by setting an example of conscience for all Americans to follow, an example of conscience which continues to lead us in our pursuit of justice and right as individuals, as a government and as a nation,” Thornburgh said.

In Memphis, about 300 people marched 2 miles from a park to the Lorraine Motel, where King was shot to death. They sang hymns and heard criticism of a $8.8-million state plan to convert the motel into a civil rights museum.

The 1965 federal Voting Rights Act finally bore fruit Monday in Selma, the Alabama town that gave impetus to that historic legislation, with the swearing-in of the first black county commissioners since Reconstruction.

D. L. Pope, Erskine Minor and Perry Varner took the oath of office in Selma, where King led blacks on a march for voting rights 24 years ago.

‘Great, Glorious Day’

“This is a great and glorious day in Dallas County,” said U. S. District Judge U. W. Clemon, who administered the oath of office. “It is the fourth remembrance of the birth date of the 20th Century’s greatest national moral leader.”

In Arizona, about 8,000 people marched 2 miles from downtown Phoenix to the state Capitol, where several speakers called for a state King day. The holiday was abolished in January, 1987, by Gov. Evan Mecham, who later was removed from office. Gov. Rose Mofford, who replaced him, appeared at the rally and pledged to sign legislation restoring Arizona’s observance.

Legislative leaders in Cheyenne, Wyo., agreed to meet with supporters of a day for King in their state. In New Jersey, the state chapter of the Rainbow Coalition began a petition drive for same-day voter registration, Lawrence Hamm, the coalition chairman, said.

In Groton, Conn., peace demonstrators carried a banner bearing a King quotation: “Our choice now is between nonviolence and non-existence.” They called for an end to production of Trident submarines at the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics Corp., and policemen made 51 arrests.