Obsequies Martin Luther King Jr., Tuesday, April 9, 1968, 10:30 A.M., Ebenezer Baptist Church, 2:00 P.M., The Campus of Morehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia

ebsequtes
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TUESDAY, APRIL 9, 1968
10:30 A.M.
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2:00P.M.
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ATLANTA, GEORGIA

!lartin iGutqrr 1King 3Jr.
1929. 1968
MARTIN LuTHER KING JR. is like the great Yggdrasil tree,
"whose roots," a poet said, "are deep in earth but in whose upper branches the stars of heaven are glowing and astir."
His roots went deeply into the inferno of slavery, this black baby born January 15, 1929, to Alberta Williams King and Martin Luther King Sr. Now the roots have grown to those upper branches, and he is indeed among the stars of heaven, this beautiful man, husband, father, pastor, leader.
He is free and he is home, and the world has come to his home to honor him and hopefully, to repent the sins against him and all humanity.
Martin Luther King came of a deeply religious family tradition. His great grandfather was a slave exhorter. His maternal grandfather, the Rev. Adam Daniel Williams, was the second pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church where for eight years, Dr. King and his father were co-pastors.
This lineage which permeated his life was an enormous influence on him and what he would ultimately become.
His father, born at the turn of the century in Stockbridge, Georgia, came to Atlanta in 1916. In 1925, Martin Luther King Sr. married Alberta Williams. They were blessed with a daughter and two sons. The youngest <;on is the Reverend .Alfred Daniel Williams King of Louisville, Kentucky, who went to Memphis, Tennessee, one infamous day "to help my brother." The daughter is Christine King Farris of Atlanta, who went to a home that night to comfort her brother's wife. The other son was Martin Luther King, Jr.
Reared in a home of love, understanding, and compassion, young Martin was to find 501 Auburn Avenue a buffer against the rampant injustices of the "sick society" for which he would become the physician.

A serious student, student at !\.Iorehouse

Martin College

Luther King was an early in Atlanta, fr.om which he

admissions graduated

with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948.

His great "wrestling inside with the must have been prophetic of .the many

problem of a vocation" agonizing hours which

would eventually characterize his life.

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gave himself to the ministry.

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He was student body,

the first and this

Negro began

to be elected president of Crozer's what would become a series of firsts

for this son whose roots were in slavery.

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gomery."

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bertine, born March 28, 1963.

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pastorate September 1, 1954.

The cradle racial injustice, Branch NAACP

of the Confederacy was and this grandson of a was asked to assume the

a seething cauldron of founder of the Atlanta presidency of the Mont-

gomery Branch NAACP. Again the wrestle.

Finally, he answered negatively, but on December 1, 1955,

the refusal of Mrs. on a Montgomery affirmatively when

Rosa Parks to give up her seat to a white man bus made the young, erudite minister answer asked to chair the newly formed Montgomery

Improvement Association.

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their loyalty has never known the midnight.

Now, shaped his

the life

myriad religious would be put to

and philosophical forces which had the test and this selfless, compassion-

ate man would "forget himself into immortality."

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conscience of the world.

On April 4, 1968, an assassin took the earthly life of Martin

Luther King, Jr.

Profound, but unpretentious; gentle, but valiant; Baptist, but

ecumenical; loving justice, this Great Spirit resolved

but the

hating injustice; the agonizing wrestling

deep and

roots gave

of all

mankind new hope for a bright tomorrow.

lives

It to

is, now, for us, the living to dedicate the Cause which Martin Luther King

and rededicate our so nobly advanced:

He Had a Dream.

The Leadership Of
MAR,.fiN LUTHER KING JR.

1955-56 1\1ontgomery Bus Boycott

1957

Founding of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)

1958

Beg~nning of massive South-wide voter registration

1959

N?nviolent education programs; school integration drives

1960

Founding of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; the sit-in movement

1961

Freedom Rides; the Albany Movement- Albany, Georgia

1962

Establishment of SCLC Citizenship Education Program and SCLC Operation Breadbasket

1963

The Birmingham Movement; The March on Washington

1964

The Nobel Prize for Peace; the Civil Rights Act of 1964

1965

The Selma-to-Montgomery March; The Voting Rights Act of 1965

1966

The Chicago Movement; the March Against Fear in Mississippi

1967

The war in Vietnam and the call for peace; the Cleveland Movement

1968 The Poor People's Campaign; Memphis

!lrmnrinl ~tntirt!i ilnrtbt 14ut4rr 1!\iug lfr.
1!129- 1!168
I. Ebenezer Baptist Church ------------------ Family and Faith II. Memorial March ------------ Commitment and Movement III. The Morehouse College Campus-------- Knowledge and
Wisdom IV: Interment ------------------------------ "Free at last~ free at last!
Thank God Almighty, I~m free at last!"
Atlnntn, ~rnrgin April !1, 1!Ifill

I

flrmnrinl ~rruittli

!flttrtitt 1Jlut4rr !\ing 3lr.

EBENEZER BAPTIST CHURCH
10:30 A.M.
The Reverend Ralph David Abernathy, Officiating

PROCESSIONAL- ucortegi'" ---------------------------------------------------- Dupre HYMN- uwhen I Survey the Wondrous Cross-'' __ arr. Lowell Mason

PRAYER ----------------------------------------------- The Reverend Ronald English
Assistant Pastor, Ebenezer Baptist Church

HYMN- ccln Christ There Is No East or West" --------------------------------Alexander R. Reinagle

OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE --------------------------------------------------

1

The Reverend William H. Borders
Pastor, Wheat Street Baptist Church

I

HYMN- uSoftly and Tenderly''--- ---------------------- Will L. Thompson
NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE -------- The Reverend E. H. Dorsey
Pastor, Tabernacle Baptist Church
ID"'MN- uwhere He Leads Me" --------------------------------- J. S. Norris

TRIBUTE ------------------------------------------------ Dr. L. Harold De_Wolfe
Mentor of Dr. King

SOLO.- ccMy Heavenly Father Watches Over Me'" ---------------------------Charles H. Gabri~l
Mrs. Mary Gurley

SERMON EXCERPTS SPIRITUAL- a Balm in Gilead" -------------------------------- Traditional RECESSIONAL- "Largo"' from ccNew World Symphony" ____ Dvorak

Martin Luther IGng Jr. marched for freedom.
We march today in grateful recognition of the freedom
he has now achieved.

III

~artin iGutqrr 1.King llr.

The Campus of Morehouse College
2:00P.M.
The Reverend Ralph David Abernathy, Officiating

PRELUDE

---------------------------I--r~-provIimsaptrioovnissaotinon"'s"Woen

Negro Spirituals Shall Overcomen

PROCESSIONAL- u C ortegen ---------------------------- Dupre
uo HYMN- God, Our Help In Ages Past',------------- Isaac Watts

PRAYER ---------------------------------------- Dr. Gardner C. Taylor
President, Progressive National Baptist Convention
OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE----------- Rabbi Abraham Heschel Professor, .Tewish Theological Seminary of America

SPIRITUAL- a Balm in Gilead,.,-------.------------------------- Traditional
Morehouse College Glee Club
NEW TESTAMENT SCRIPTURE .. The Reverend Franklin C. Frye
President, National Council of Churches

SPIRITUAL- '"'Ain"'t Got Time to Die" ----------------- Traditional
Ebenezer Baptist Church Choir

TRIBUTES:

THE HONORABLE IVAN ALLEN, JR.

.

Mayor, City of Atlanta

MR. ROBERT J. COLLIER
Chairman, Board of Deacons, Ebenezer Baptist Church
MOST REVEREND JOHN J. WRIGHT
Bishop of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania

MRS. ROSA PARKS "Mother" of Montgomery Movement
THE REVEREND J. E. LOWERY
Chairman, Board of Directors, Southern Christian Leadership Conference
THE REVEREND ANDREW J. YOUNG
Executive Vice President, Southern Christian Leadership Conference

SOLO_:_ aPrecious Lord, Take My Hand"----------- Thomas A. Dorsey
Miss Mahalia Jackson

EULOGY -------------------------------------------------- Dr. Benjamin E. Mays
President Emeritus, Morehouse College
HYMN- "'The Morehouse College Hymn" --------- J. 0. B. Mozeley
"WE SHALL OVERCOME"

BENEDICTION--------------------------------------- Bishop W. R. Wilkes
Presiding Bishop, Third Episcopal District, African Methodist Episcopal Church
RECESSIONAL-'"Largo"'"' fr<:>m uNew World Symphony"'' .... Dvorak

1Jntrnnrnt
South View Cemetery

THE DREAMS AND INSPIRATION
OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

"History has thrust upon our generation an indescribably important

destiny-to complete a process of democratization which our nation

has too long developed too slowly. How we deal with with this crucial

situation will determine our moral health as individuals, our cultural

health as a region, our political health as a nation, and our prestige

as a leader of the free world.''

-1958

"Although I cannot pay the fine, I will willingly accept the alternative which you provide, and that I will do without malice."
- Statement to an Alabama judge, 1958
';It may get me crucified. I may even die. But I want it said even if I die in the struggle that 'He died to make men free'" .
-1962

''The question is not whether we will be extremist but what kind of extremists will we be. Will we be extremists for hate or will we be extremists for the preservation of injustice-or will we be extremists

for the cause of justice?

- Letter from a Birmingham Jail

April, 1963

"! have a dream that my jour little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but the
content of their character." - The March on Washington, August 28, 1963

"Some of you have knives, and I ask you to put them up. Some of you have arms, and I ask you to put them up. Get the weapon of nonviolence, the breastplate of righteousness, the armor of truth and

just keep marching."

-1964

"Cowardice asks the question, 'Is it safe?' Expediency asks the question, 'Is it politic?' Vanity asks the question, 'Is it popular?' But conscience asks the question, 'Is it right?' And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must take it because conscience tells him that it is right.''
- On Taking a position against the war in Vietnam, 1967

"Poor people'-s lives are disrupted and dislocated every day. We want to put a stop to this. Poverty, racism and discrimination cause families to be kept apart, men to become desperate, women to live in fear, and

children to starve."

- On the Poor People's Campaign, 1968

"Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place.

But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will

.. . .. I've looked over and I've seen the promised land. I may not get

there with you, but I want you to know tonight that we as a people

will get to the promised land."

-April 3, 1968

l;nnnrury Jallbrurrrs:
Board of Deacons, Ebenezer Baptist Church S. C. L. C. Staff
Men of the Clergy
.Artiur Jallbrarrrs:
1. Mr. Milton Cornelius 2. Mr. Jethro English 3. Mr. Arthur Henderson 4. Mr. Howard Dowdy 5. Reverend C. K. Steele 6. Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth 7. Reverend Jesse Jackson 8. Reverend Fred C. Bennette

"I Tried to Love and Serve Humanity"

"IF ANY OF YOU are around when I have to meet my day, I don't want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell him not to talk too long ..... Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize. That isn't important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards. That's not important. Tell them not to mention where I went to school. I'd like somebody to mention that day, that 'Martin Luther King Jr. tried to give his life serving others.' I'd like for somebody to say that day, that 'Martin Luther King Jr. tried to love somebody.' I want you to say that day that I tried to be right on the war question. I want you to be able to say that day, that I did try to feed the hungry. And I want you to be able to say that day that I did try in my life to clothe those who were naked. I want you to say on that day, that I did try, in my life, to visit those who
were in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and seive
humanity ."

-MARTIN LuTHER KING JR.

Ebenezer Baptist Church

Adanta, Georgia

Sunday, February 4, 1968

.\

wn urJ'rirn~!i
In this hour of sadness, we wish to acknowledge with deepest gratitude the great outpouring of sympathy and warm consolation we have received from our friends throughout the world. You have lifted our hearts, and with your help and the immortal guiding spirit of our son, husband, father, brother, martyred leader- MARTIN LuTHER KING
JR.- We Shall Overcome.
THE FAMILY OF MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.
Funeral Under the Direction of: HANLEY BELL STREET FUNERAL HOME MARCELLOUS THORNTON FUNERAL HOME
Atlanta, Georgia