Shutdown, disunity themes at MLK event in Atlanta

A commemorative service for Martin Luther King Jr. that was nearly imperiled by the federal government shutdown was held Monday morning in Atlanta at a church called King’s “spiritual home.”

King’s daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, said the annual service at Ebenezer Baptist Church came during a moment of national crisis.

“Our humanity is literally on the verge of digressing to two Americas and becoming the dis-United State of America,” she said.

The event was attended by Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue, Democratic Congresswoman Lucy McBath, and Emma Gonzalez, a graduate of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High.

The site of the annual service, Ebenezer Baptist Church, sits amid the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park in the “Sweet Auburn” neighborhood of Atlanta. The civil rights leader was copastor with his father at the church from 1960 until his assassination in 1968.

The park was closed amid the government shutdown until Atlanta-based Delta Air Lines gave the National Park Service a grant to reopen the site through Feb. 3.

Perdue, who is white, recounted growing up in Georgia during segregation and praised King as an inspiring leader who changed the world through courage.

“He gave us hope during some of this country’s darkest days,” Perdue said. “Our country has overcome a lot, but there is much left to be done.”

The church is often referred to as King’s “spiritual home” because his father was the pastor there for four decades and King delivered some of his first sermons there.