Fifty years after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, the civil rights leader's family and admirers were marking the anniversary of his death with marches, speeches and quiet reflection today.
The commemorations stretched from his hometown of Atlanta to Memphis, where he died, and points beyond.
Hundreds of people bundled in hats and coats gathered early in Memphis for a march led by the same sanitation workers union whose low pay King had come to protest when he was shot.
Others were assembling in Atlanta, where King's daughter the Rev. Bernice A. King was set to moderate an awards ceremony in his honor.
The Memphis events are scheduled to feature King's contemporaries, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the Rev. Al Sharpton and U.S. Rep. John Lewis, along with celebrities such as the rapper Common.
In the evening, the Atlanta events culminate with a bell-ringing and wreath-laying at his crypt to mark the moment when he was gunned down on the balcony of the old Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968. He was 39.
More From This Section
Wednesday's events followed a rousing celebration the night before of King's "I've Been To the Mountaintop" speech at Memphis' Mason Temple Church of God in Christ. He delivered this speech the night before he was assassinated.
Inside the church, Bernice King called her older brother, Martin Luther King III, to join her in the pulpit, and she discussed the difficulty of publicly mourning their father a man hated during his lifetime, now beloved around the world.
"It's important to see two of the children who lost their daddy 50 years ago to an assassin's bullet," said Bernice King, now 55.
"But we kept going. Keep all of us in prayer as we continue the grieving process for a parent that we've had yet to bury."
Lee Saunders, a national labor leader, recounted how on that night in 1968, King made an unplanned appearance to deliver the famous speech without notes after his aides saw how passionate the crowd was: "There was one man they wanted to hear from."
Former President Barack Obama spoke in a video, saying "as long as we're still trying, Dr. King's soul is still rejoicing."