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Posts tagged as “Ebenezer Baptist Church”

Born on this Day in 1927: Civil Rights Activist, Icon and Author Coretta Scott King (WATCH)

Born on this Day in 1927: Civil Rights Activist, Icon and Author Coretta Scott King (WATCH)

By goodblacknews on April 27, 2021

Practically all Americans celebrate or at the very least know about the national Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday. But how many know it came to pass because of the activism and efforts of his widow, Coretta Scott King?

Today, on what would have been Coretta Scott King’s 94th birthday, we honor and celebrate her.

Coretta Scott King worked alongside MLK Jr. throughout the civil rights movement, and continued social justice work for decades after his assassination in 1968 until her own passing in 2006.

The mother of four founded the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change in 1968 and activist lobbied tirelessly for fifteen years to have her late husband’s birthday recognized as a federal holiday.

In 1983 she finally succeeded when President Ronald Reagan signed a bill into law declaring MLK Day starting on January 20, 1986. Coretta Scott King honored the occasion in Atlanta, Georgia, placing a wreath on King’s tomb and holding a ceremony at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Dr. King had served as co-pastor for eight years before his death.

Coretta Scott King also spoke up for women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, against the Vietnam War, against apartheid in South Africa and called out the FBI for its extensive surveillance of both her and MLK. King wrote about her life and work in the book My Life With Martin Luther King, Jr., first published in 1969.

In 2005, King allowed her alma mater, Antioch College, to create the Coretta Scott King Center as a learning resource to address issues of race, class, gender, diversity, and social justice for the campus and the surrounding community. The Center opened in 2007.

King was inducted into the Alabama Women’s Hall of Fame in 2009 and the National Women’s Hall of Fame in 2011.

To learn more about her life and legacy, watch the video above, or check out the books My Life, My Love, My Legacy and Coretta Scott by Ntozake Shange and Kadir Nelson.

(paid links)

U.S. Rep and Civil Rights Leader John Lewis Offers Essay Full of Encouragement and Wisdom on Day of His Funeral

U.S. Rep and Civil Rights Leader John Lewis Offers Essay Full of Encouragement and Wisdom on Day of His Funeral

By goodblacknews on July 30, 2020

Not even death can stop John Lewis from giving his heart and soul to the fight for equality and justice for all.

Civil Rights titan and Congressmember Lewis wrote an essay for the New York Times entitled “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation,” meant to be published today, the day of his funeral.

As Lewis’s body is being laid to rest at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA, the spirited words in his essay urge us all to “answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe.”

Lewis also writes about what and who ignited his journey into protest against injustice:

Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor. He was 14 when he was killed, and I was only 15 years old at the time. I will never ever forget the moment when it became so clear that he could easily have been me. In those days, fear constrained us like an imaginary prison, and troubling thoughts of potential brutality committed for no understandable reason were the bars.

Lewis also shares the moment he first encountered the teachings and mission of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and how it affected him:

Like so many young people today, I was searching for a way out, or some might say a way in, and then I heard the voice of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on an old radio. He was talking about the philosophy and discipline of nonviolence. He said we are all complicit when we tolerate injustice. He said it is not enough to say it will get better by and by. He said each of us has a moral obligation to stand up, speak up and speak out. When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state. It is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself.

To read Lewis’ essay in its entirety (or hear an audio reading of it), go to: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/30/opinion/john-lewis-civil-rights-america.html

To Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr Day 2020, King’s Progeny Read From His 1965 “American Dream” Speech (WATCH)

To Celebrate Martin Luther King Jr Day 2020, King’s Progeny Read From His 1965 “American Dream” Speech (WATCH)

By goodblacknews on January 20, 2020

by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

To honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2020, CBS This Morning aired Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s children, Bernice King and Martin Luther King III, and his granddaughter, Yolanda King, reading part of the civil rights icon’s insightful, inclusive “The American Dream” sermon, which built upon and extended his iconic “I Have A Dream” speech from 1963’s March on Washington. (See a brief history of that speech here.)

MLK Jr. originally delivered the “American Dream” speech at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in 1965. To hear King himself, listen below:

To read the full transcript of “The American Dream,” go to: https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/american-dream-sermon-delivered-ebenezer-baptist-church

 

Attorney General Eric Holder Announces Plan To End Racial Profiling “Once And For All”

By goodblacknews on December 2, 2014
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder gestures as he speaks to members of the community during an interfaith service at Ebenezer Baptist Church, Dec. 1 in Atlanta. (David Goldman/Associated Press)

Addressing the state of race and policing relations, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder announced Monday that he plans to introduce new policies that will end racial profiling “once and for all.”

Speaking to a capacity crowd at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where the 1960s civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. was a preacher, Holder said he’d lay out specific policy changes in the coming days, but acknowledged that the events in Ferguson, Missouri, had laid bare significant issues regarding policing and race relations.
“The issues raised in Missouri are not unique to that state or small city,” he said.
Tackling those issues would require systemic changes and a commitment at the federal, state, and local levels to change how law enforcement interacts with the public.  “Our police officers cannot be, or be viewed as, an occupying force, disconnected to the communities they serve,” Holder said. “Bonds that have been broken must be restored; bonds that never existed must be created.”
Part of that effort, he added, would be “rigorous new standards and robust safeguards to help end racial profiling once and for all.”

King Children Accept Congressional Gold Medal for Dr. King and Mrs. King

By goodblacknews on June 25, 2014

Dr. King and Coretta Scott King
The King children—Bernice, Dexter and Martin III– will accept the posthumous Congressional Gold Medal for their parents Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Coretta Scott King. To mark the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the White House honored both the civil rights icon and his often unsung wife–who dedicated her life to keeping his legacy and that of the larger movement alive until her death in 2006–at a special ceremony yesterday, June 24.
Earlier this year, the King children were embroiled in a battle over the potential sale of the Nobel Peace Prize medal Dr. King received in 1964 and his personal traveling Bible that President Obama sworn on for his first historic inauguration ceremony. At a news conference held at the historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, where her father and grandfather preached, Bernice said “I take this strong position for my father because Daddy is not here to say for himself, ‘My Bible and my medals are not to be sold.”
Although some applauded Bernice’s public stance, others pointed out that the children all sold their father’s papers for $32 million in 2006 and pondered why these possessions were deemed different. In 2009, the King children settled another dispute over the King estate, with Bernice and Martin III teamed against Dexter regarding his decision-making for the estate.
While there appears to be no public record of the resolution of the latest legal battle, it is promising that the children are scheduled to accept the honor for their parents together. Let’s hope the good vibes continue and the Kings can finally get the peace for which their parents fought. George Washington received the first medal in 1776.
article by Ronda Racha Penrice via uptownmagazine.com