A complicated mixture of emotions swirled around the family of Martin Luther King Jr. on Thursday as they laid a wreath at his tomb on the 56th anniversary of his assassination.
Led by Rev. Bernice King, the civil rights icon’s daughter, the family grieved over the deaths of several of its members over the past nine months. In her comments, Bernice King noted that her family had lost the last of the generation ahead of hers: Christine King Farris, King’s last living sibling, and his sister-in-law, Naomi King, who was married to his brother A.D. King.
In January, King’s youngest son, Dexter Scott King, died of prostate cancer eight days before his 63rd birthday.
“This has been a very trying and difficult season,” Bernice King said.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
The responsibilities of the day further subdivided the family, she added. Her brother, Martin Luther King III, and his family were absent as they attended events in Memphis, Tennessee, where King was shot and killed April 4, 1968.
The local ceremony began with a moment of private prayer for the family inside Freedom Hall at the King Center before their procession to the crypt, where Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, are interred. Coretta Scott King died in 2006.
The morning was chilly and breezy but bright and clear, causing the water to sparkle in the reflecting pool surrounding the crypt. A murmuring crowd of onlookers and press gathered at the edge as Bernice King laid out a beautifully arranged wreath of yellow, purple and white flowers.
Despite the ceremony’s mournful tone, Bernice King and other family members struck a solid note of determination, promising to carry on King’s legacy of equity and nonviolence while promoting the next generation of Kings.
“We are here united as a family to let you know that we are going to continue these great legacies of our parents,” Bernice King said. “The legacies of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King are so critical to the times we’re living in, very turbulent, troubling, difficult, challenging times.”
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Bernice King used the moment to urge people, including national leaders, to study the “philosophy and strategy” of nonviolence her father championed.
“If you want a peaceful society, then nonviolence is the pathway to creating that peace,” she continued.
Derek Barber King, King’s nephew, shared a heartfelt prayer, and King’s niece, Alveda King, led the crowd in a rendition of the hymn “This Little Light of Mine.”
After the wreath-laying, members of the King family addressed the media in a casual news conference, and it became apparent that even they are not immune to today’s complicated political climate. Alveda King and another of King’s nephews, Isaac Farris Jr., briefly sparred over the conflict in Gaza, though both agreed on a call for an immediate ceasefire.
Prior to that back and forth, Bernice King called upon relatives she called “the young ones” to address the gathered press as representatives of the family’s next generation.
Farris Watkins, King’s great-niece, referenced scripture and spoke with emotion about the lesson of training to become a champion from 1 Corinthians, the same chapter from which Coretta Scott King chose an inscription on her tomb.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
“Sometimes we have to go through grief. We have to go through testing and trials,” Watkins said. “I’m sure some of you saw me crying up there. ... Our hearts are very heavy today because it’s a reality that our flesh is weak but our soul is strong.”
Jarrett Ellis, King’s great-nephew and a lawyer who works at Georgia Tech, talked about the practical application of King’s philosophy.
“Justice is what love looks like in public,” Ellis said. “If you talk about equity ... and equality, none of it really makes sense outside of that fundamental principle of love. Without that, you end up with endless divisions, you end up with political contests.”
Credit: Henri Hollis
Credit: Henri Hollis
On a day that featured so many competing sentiments, including pride, pain, sorrow and hope, there was a quiet moment that stood out for its normalcy, lending the King family an air of reliability despite Martin Luther King Jr.’s impossibly weighty legacy.
As the group waited to cross the reflecting pool to the crypt, Derek King called over an elementary school-aged relative. While she peered up at him through pink-framed glasses, he gestured at the wall of black-and-white photos of family members in their younger years, pontificating in an unmistakably grandfatherly fashion.
During his prayer a few moments later, Derek King thanked God for the gift of memory and reflected on work still to be done.
“Fifty-six years ago, when that gun fired that fatal bullet, some people rejoiced because they thought it was over,” he prayed. “But all they did was stir us up. So every year on April 4, we will remind the world with the power of God that (they) thought (they) ended it, but they just got us started.”
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