Hundreds Brave Cold in Lincoln to Honor Martin Luther King, Jr.

By: Bill Steckis Email

Updated: Tue 7:47 AM, Jan 22, 2013

Forty-four years ago a civil rights leader was killed but the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. didn't stop his message of love, equality and justice from living on. Just like the freezing cold did not stop hundreds from marching to the State Capitol in his honor Monday.

Meanwhile, the youngest daughter of Martin Luther King stressed her father's legacy of peace and nonviolence. Bernice King addressed the annual commemorative service at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where her father preached. She described how he calmed an armed, angry crowd when the King family's home in Montgomery, Ala., was bombed. He stood on the porch and urged the crowd to fight not with guns but with Christian love. His daughter calls it "one of the bravest experiences of gun control that we've ever heard of in the history of our nation."

The keynote speaker at Monday's service was the Rev. Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference. It was the first time a Latino leader served in that role.

In Washington, many people who were headed to the National Mall for President Barack Obama's second inauguration stopped first at the statue of King at his memorial to have their pictures taken there.

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