Forty Years Later: Where Are We?

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I woke up this morning with my mind stayed on freedom. Forty years ago today, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down as he stood on the balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis.

On the eve of today's "Recommitment March," the National Civil Rights Museum presented "In Remembrance There is Life: A Night of Storytelling." Dr. King's life and legacy were celebrated through the stories of people who walked, talked and worked with him.



The multi-media program was held in Hudson Hall, formerly the white waiting room of Central Station. The storytellers included Dr. Wyatt T. Walker, Rev. C.T. Vivian, Dr. Dorothy Cotton, Clarence Jones, Myrlie Evers-Williams and Tony Brown.

Memories of Dr. King's final days were shared by Dr. Benjamin Hooks, the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr., and the Rev. Samuel "Billy" Kyles who, along with the Rev. Ralph David Abernathy, was with Dr. King in Room 306 in the final hour of his life.

Jackson made it clear that Dr. King did not give his life – it was taken:
He did not flinch in the face of death but Dr. King did not give his life. He was not afraid of death but he did not die a masochist.
Dr. Cotton, the Education Director for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, asked:
What will you do? What will you do to bring Dr. King's dream alive?
She reminded us that we are the ones we have been waiting for.

More King Coverage
+ 40 years later, question remains: What if King had lived?
+ New Book: America 'After King'
+ Who Really killed MLK?
+ Martin Luther King: Talking to History

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