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Title: Coretta Scott King to Lie in State Post by: Shammu on February 04, 2006, 01:43:22 PM This could fit, under several topics. I have choosen Politics and Political Issues, because it is making a political statement.
Coretta Scott King to Lie in State Coretta Scott King to Lie in State at Georgia Capitol; Mourners Gather to Pay Respects (http://abcnews.go.com/images/US/NY11902040437_sp.jpeg) Mourners in Sisters Chapel at Spelman College in Atlanta, Ga., in a Sunday, April 8, 1968 file photo, are shown paying final respects to slain civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., lying in state. When the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968, then-Gov. Lester Maddox refused to close the Georgia Capitol in his honor and was outraged to see state flags at half-staff. Four decades later, the state is paying tribute to King's widow with full honors. (AP Photo, File) By SHANNON McCAFFREY Associated Press Writer The Associated PressThe Associated Press ATLANTA Feb 4, 2006 — A horse-drawn carriage on Saturday carried the body of Coretta Scott King to Georgia's state Capitol, where she was to be the first woman and first black person to lie in honor. About 70 people stood at one downtown street corner in cold, windy weather waiting for the carriage to pass. "I want to pay respects to the family and the difference they made to people across the globe," said Wayne Thomas, 48, of Lithonia, Ga. Saturday's tribute was just one of several her husband, the famed civil rights leader, never received in a climate of segregation. "This is not just a salute to Mrs. King. It's a tribute to her and her husband, and to all they stood for and did," said U.S. Rep. John Lewis. Gov. Sonny Perdue planned to escort the casket into the Capitol alongside King's four children. That would be a striking contrast to the 1968 death of Martin Luther King Jr., when then-Gov. Lester Maddox was outraged to see state flags, then dominated by the Confederate Cross, flying at half-staff in tribute to a black man and refused to authorize a public tribute. King died Monday at an alternative medicine clinic in Mexico. Immediately after, the state flag she helped to change no longer bearing the Confederate battle emblem was lowered by Perdue. For most of Monday, King's casket will lie in Ebenezer Baptist Church, where her husband preached in the years before his death. Her funeral will be held at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, where the Kings' youngest child, Bernice, is a minister. Few details have been released about the funeral, including who will deliver the eulogy. However, the American Jewish Committee said the King family invited the executive director of its Atlanta chapter to deliver remarks. The King legacy is a major draw to Atlanta. The King Center, which is the site of Martin Luther King Jr.'s tomb, attracts thousands, along with his nearby birth home and Ebenezer Baptist Church. When Martin Luther King Jr. died, segregation was openly accepted in the South, even though it was on its last legs, said Akinyele Umoja, an African-American studies professor at Georgia State University. "Lester Maddox had a strong base. Now, you don't have that constituency," Umoja said. State Rep. Tyrone Brooks, who was a young activist in King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference, said Maddox was the epitome of Jim Crow, racist segregation. "It became a national insult to Dr. King and the King legacy and the whole civil rights movement that was sweeping across the South, bringing about significant change," he said. Coretta Scott King to Lie in State (http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1579871) |