MEMPHIS HONORS MARTIN LUTHER KING.Byline: Arthur Brice Cox News Service Thirty years ago Saturday in this city hard by the banks of the Mississippi River Mississippi River River, central U.S. It rises at Lake Itasca in Minnesota and flows south, meeting its major tributaries, the Missouri and the Ohio rivers, about halfway along its journey to the Gulf of Mexico. , an assassin's bullet felled an American giant and changed the course of history. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., in Memphis, Tenn., for a protest march in support of striking sanitation workers sanitation worker n. A person employed, as by a municipality or private company, to collect and dispose of garbage. , was killed at 6:01 p.m. as he stood on the balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel. Within hours, America would erupt into flames. The civil rights movement would never recover. King's death, as well as the short but full life that preceded it, are being commemorated this weekend in a tribute promoters are calling A Pilgrimage to Memphis. The highlight Friday was a commemorative service at Mason Temple Mason Temple is the central house of worship of the Church of God in Christ, this denomination is the largest Pentecostal group in the United States. Built in 1940 during World War II despite shortages in steel and other supplies, Mason Temple was the largest church building Church, site of King's famous ``I've Been to the Mountaintop'' speech exactly 30 years earlier. The rousing speech, in which King seemed to foretell fore·tell tr.v. fore·told , fore·tell·ing, fore·tells To tell of or indicate beforehand; predict. fore·tell his death, was delivered the night before his murder. It was to be his last public statement. Those now well-known words echoed eerily through the Mason Temple on Friday night as a tape recording of the speech was played for the hundreds gathered to remember. Saturday's planned events were to include a morning march through downtown and a candlelight vigil A candelight vigil is an outdoor assembly of people carrying candles, held after sunset. Such events are typically held either to protest at the suffering of some marginalized group of people, or in memory of lives lost to some disease, disaster, massacre or other tragedy. at the Lorraine, now home to the 6-year-old National Civil Rights Museum. ``We're going to finish the march that he was not able to finish,'' said the Rev. Samuel Billy Kyles William Osborne "Billy" Kyle (July 14, 1914 - February 23, 1966) was an American jazz pianist. Kyle was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He began playing the piano in school and by the early 1930s worked with Lucky Millinder, and later the Mills Blue Rhythm Band. , the preacher who had asked King to come to Memphis to support the striking sanitation workers. ``His last speech, his last march, the last days of his life were here in Memphis, and it's something we don't have to hang our heads over,'' said Kyles, who organized this weekend's three-day tribute. Kyles and an army of volunteers started planning the memorial a year ago. Among other events planned for the weekend are a series of adult and youth forums and a rally at the Cook Convention Center. Speakers slated to appear for the event include the Rev. Jesse Jackson Noun 1. Jesse Jackson - United States civil rights leader who led a national campaign against racial discrimination and ran for presidential nomination (born in 1941) Jesse Louis Jackson, Jackson , who was with King in Memphis on the night of the murder, and Taylor Branch, author of two critically acclaimed books on King. Other groups also have planned events in Memphis this weekend, including a meeting of the Coalition on Political Assassinations, an organization that believes King died as the result of a conspiracy. Speakers at that event include William Pepper This article is about the physician. For the lawyer, see William F. Pepper. William Pepper (August 21, 1843 - July 28, 1898), American physician, was born in Philadelphia. , who is James Earl Ray's lawyer, and the Rev. James Lawson For details on the English football (soccer) player, see James Lawson (footballer) James M. Lawson (born September 22, 1928 in Uniontown, Pennsylvania) was a leading theoretician and tactician of nonviolence within the American Civil Rights Movement He continues to be , one of King's colleagues. Ray, serving a 99-year sentence, has claimed since shortly after his arrest in 1969 that he was framed for King's murder. Kyles said he anguished for years about having invited King to Memphis. ``If I had not been a part of inviting him, if he had not been going to my home, would he have been killed?'' Kyles asked. Then he found an answer. ``God revealed it to me,'' said Kyles, pastor of the Monumental Baptist Church since 1959. ``I was there to be a witness. To witness that Martin Luther King didn't die in a foolish way. He died helping garbage workers, and we can't forget that. ``It was a short life,'' Kyles said. ``But, my God, can we imagine what the 20th century would have been like without Martin Luther King?'' CAPTION(S): Photo PHOTO (Color) Brandon James, 12, of The Original King Kids of America of Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth is the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas, 18th-largest city in the United States[1], and voted one of "America’s Most Livable Communities. , bows his head during a service at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Tenn., on Friday. The city, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered April 4, 1968, has planned a three-day memorial for the civil rights leader. Shoun A. Hill/The Commercial Appeal |
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