City laments King’s unfinished business

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — They waved signs that said “I Am.” They came as labor leaders and politicians, retail workers and teachers. Most of all, they came with a pointed declaration: The struggle continues.

Thousands of people descended on this impoverished Southern city on Wednesday in a show of force that was as much a commemoration as a call to action, as the nation remembered the 50th anniversary of the death of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

An emotional crowd gathered around the Lorraine Motel balcony where King was slain by an assassin’s bullet, observing a moment of silence while a bell tolled at 6:01 p.m., the time he was shot. The balcony was draped in a black sheet with a People gather in Memphis, Tenn., for events Wednesday commemorating the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. wreath of red and white flowers attached to it. While many celebrated the achievements of the civil rights icon, they also lamented the country’s continuing struggles with poverty, racism and inequality.

“There’s something wrong in our nation, where we live, where a minimum of 48 million people are living in poverty,” said Martin Luther King III, King’s oldest son, his voice roaring like his father’s at a rally. “That’s unacceptable. We must do better.”

Many activists expressed concern that King’s legacy might be sanitized as someone who simply advocated peace. They said they hoped this moment would provide a chance to highlight the forceful lengths to which he was willing to go — like resistance through civil disobedience — to overcome racism.

Many said they saw this as an urgent moment.

There are racist elements in the country, the younger King said, “and some of the things that have been said by the president have given rise to this behavior. And so we got to find a way to work on the president’s heart, like we worked on George Wallace’s heart years ago and changed him.”

King’s son, and his daughter Bernice King, essentially endorsed today’s social justice movements — from Black Lives Matter to #MeToo — as extensions of their father’s work.

A rally on Wednesday morning organized by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the Church of God in Christ drew a crowd carrying signs with messages like “Fight Poverty” and “We got nothing to lose but our chains.” It was a strike by Memphis sanitation workers in 1968 that prompted King to travel to Memphis a half-century ago.

In many ways, Memphis was the ideal backdrop to channel King’s fight. Racial tensions still run deep. Last week, a convenience store clerk fatally shot Dorian Harris, a black teenager, after he stole a beer. The clerk fired at the teenager down the street and did not check to see if he had struck him. The boy’s dead body was discovered two days later. The clerk has been charged with murder.

Poverty remains endemic. Memphis is the poorest large metropolitan area in the country.