Shutdown doesn’t stop King Center visit from teams

Despite the federal government’s shutdown, college football players were still able to visit The King Center on Thursday — a highlight of events leading up to Saturday’s Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl between Florida and Michigan.

“The event is going on as planned,” Matt Garvey, vice president of communications for the game told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution early Thursday. “We’re doing the same program. We’re just moving from one church to the other.”

The original sanctuary at Ebenezer Baptist Church is listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, run by the National Park Service. Federally-run sites are closed during the partial shutdown of the federal government that began Saturday and is expected to stretch into January.

But a newer Ebenezer sanctuary isn’t part of the historic registry, Garvey said. And that’s where the program was held for players Thursday evening. The college students heard from civil rights leaders C.T. Vivian and Gerald Durley, as well as former television journalist Monica Pearson. Vivian, a minister and author, was a close friend of Martin Luther King Jr. and Durley, pastor emeritus at Providence Missionary Baptist Church, was active in the civil rights movement while a college basketball star.

“It really is one of the more impactful events of the week,” Garvey said.

The event was closed to the public.

But because of the shutdown, not all of the Martin Luther King Jr. historical site was open for the players. The King Center posted a message to visitors on its social media sites.

“#TheKingCenter is open. Although the Center is within the King Historic District and #MLK National Historic Park, it is a separate entity. We welcome your visits and pray/ advocate for an expedient, humane conclusion to the government shutdown,” The King Center posted.

Thursday afternoon, the museum store at The King Center was open because those employees are not park service employees.

The Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl players and coaches have visited other Atlanta landmarks, including the College Football Hall of Fame. On Wednesday, Florida players visited patients at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta at Scottish Rite and Michigan players visited Egleston.