A final farewell to Coretta Scott King
By Dahleen Glanton
Tribune staff reporter
February 7, 2006, 11:21 AM CSTp> LITHONIA, Ga. -- Thousands of mourners, including President Bush, three former U.S. presidents and legions of ordinary citizens, made their sad pilgrimages to this Atlanta suburb today to bid farewell to Coretta Scott King, considered by many to be the first lady of the civil rights movement.
Mourners began lining up as early as 6 a.m. at a shopping mall where city buses were to shuttle them to the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia to view Mrs. King's body. Then, mourners were expected to form a line to fill one of the 10,000 seats available at the funeral.
The mourners included a large contingent from Chicago, ranging from Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) to Ald. Dorothy Tillman (3rd).
Many said they had stood in line for hours since Monday night in an attempt to view the body at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where she lay in state and where her husband, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., once served as co-pastor with his father.
Even at 11 p.m. Monday, the wait was still three to four hours to get inside the small church, which remained open long after midnight.
Today the President and First Lady Laura Bush arrived for the funeral service, which is expected to draw luminaries from the civil rights movement and politics as well as entertainers, poets and foreign dignitaries.
After police and secret service blocked off motor traffic surrounding the church, people parked as far as a mile away and walked down narrow roads leading to the church. Many of them brought their young children, saying this was an historic event they did not want them to miss.
Mrs. King will be laid to rest amid discussion of how far America has come in recognizing the dream of her husband. In 38 years, many civil rights leaders say much has changed but much remains the same, particularly regarding politics and race relations.
Her funeral and the weekend honors leading up to it were an illustration of how this is in many ways a different America.
The contingent of presidents attending the funeral is one indication—a tribute her husband did not receive. She lay in state Saturday at the Georgia rotunda and since her death, flags have flown at half-staff across the state.
When her husband died, then-Gov. Lester Maddox, a segregationist, refused to allow state workers the day off to go to Dr. King's funeral.
Though the honor of lying in state at the rotunda was a great one—she was the first African-American and the first woman to receive such a tribute—and 49,000 people turned out to view her, there were still rumblings from some that it was inappropriate.
Some blacks have been highly critical of Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue and the Republican-majority General Assembly for creating the voter ID law, which they say is a modern poll tax.
What is happening in Georgia also is a reflection of what is going on nationally with African-Americans, the president and the Republican Congress.
Today Rev. Jesse Jackson and Rev. Al Sharpton held a news conference to accuse Bush of hypocrisy for attending the service, in light of what they called policies that they consider detrimental to African-Americans.
Some say Mrs. King's funeral puts Bush in a situation he cannot win: He is criticized if he does attend, and would be criticized if he didn't attend.
The last time Bush tried to pay respect to Dr. King was on the national holiday honoring the slain leader about three years ago. Blacks lined the streets near Martin Luther King Center for Non-violent Social Change and booed Bush as he laid a wreath at Dr. King's grave. Bush has not attended an event there since.
