Martin Luther King remembered

Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr’s legacy as a preacher of peace and tolerance is being remembered in the US today as Americans marked his memorial day just over a week after the senseless shootings in Arizona.

Six people were killed and a congresswoman seriously wounded as a gunman opened fire outside a suburban mall.

Attorney General Eric Holder, speaking at King’s former church in Atlanta, praised him as “our nation’s greatest drum major of peace” and said the Tucson bloodshed was a call to recommit to King’s values of nonviolence, tolerance, compassion and justice.

“Last week a senseless rampage in Arizona reminded us that more than 40 years after Dr King’s own tragic death, our struggle to eradicate violence and to promote peace goes on,” Holder said.

President Barack Obama, in Washington, said part of King’s legacy was about service and urged Americans to get out into their communities – a step he suggested would have special meaning following the shootings.

“After a painful week where so many of us were focused on the tragedy, it’s good for us to remind ourselves of what this country is all about,” he told reporters as he and first lady Michelle Obama took part in a painting project at a school in Washington.

Politicians joined members of the King family at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to mark what would have been the civil rights icon’s 82nd birthday. Members of the King family also laid a wreath at the tombs of King and his widow, Coretta Scott King, on the 25th anniversary of the federal holiday established to honour the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Rep. John Lewis of Georgia, who worked with King during the civil rights movement, issued a renewed call for Americans to unite in peace and love as King preached during his lifetime.

“If Dr. King could speak to us today, he would tell us that it does not matter how much we disapprove of another person’s point of view, there is never a reason to deny another human being the respect he or she deserves,” Lewis said.

The Rev. Raphael Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer, called for members of Congress to show solidarity during the State of the Union Address this month. Quoting the Bible and Abraham Lincoln, Warnock said, “A house divided against itself cannot stand.”

In Philadelphia, hundreds of volunteers including Mayor Michael Nutter helped refurbish computers for needy residents as part of the city’s “day of service” events to mark the King holiday.

The effort was part of the $25 million federally funded Freedom Rings Partnership, which aims to deliver 5,000 computers over the next few years to people in the city, where 41 per cent of residents lack internet access.

The day was an opportunity for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People to underscore its opposition in South Carolina to a Confederate flag that flies outside the Statehouse, separately from the state flag, where it was moved from atop the dome in 2000 after protests by the NAACP. Critics call the Confederate flag a symbol of slavery and oppression because it was flown by the rebel southern states during the Civil War.

“Take down that flag,” North Carolina NAACP president, the Rev. William Barber, told a rally for King Day in Columbia. He said the flag’s presence disrespects people not only in South Carolina but across the nation.

But the South Carolina commander of Sons of Confederate Veterans disagreed.

“They have the right to view it any way they wish. … But I’m telling you it is. It is our heritage, and we will honour it,” said Mark Simpson of Spartanburg, whose great-great grandfather was a Confederate soldier.

In Maine, Gov. Paul LePage changed plans and attended a memorial breakfast just days after saying critics of his decision to skip other King events could “kiss my butt.”

LePage attended the breakfast in Waterville on Monday, just as he had done for several years as the city’s mayor before being elected governor. His appearance was scheduled after he responded to critics of his decision not to attend the state NAACP’s annual holiday celebrations. His “kiss my butt” comment drew harsh criticism from state and national leaders of the civil rights group.

King is the only American who was not a US president to have a federal holiday named in his honour. He has been recognised on the third Monday in January since 1986.

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