Hundreds gather for King Day service in Atlanta

The impending inauguration of the nation’s first black president is a huge step toward realizing Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of racial equality, but there is still work to be done, King’s nephew told a large crowd Monday at the church where the civil rights leader
once preached.

Isaac Newton Farris, president of The King Center, told the jubilant crowd on what would have been King’s 80th birthday that the election of Barack Obama was built on a foundation laid by King and was a “gigantic leap” toward the fulfillment of King’s dream. The sanctuary of Ebenezer Baptist Church was packed, with dozens of people
left outside.

“There is definitely a spiritual connection between these two events,” Farris told the mostly black congregation that erupted in applause at any mention of
Obama’s name.

But he cautioned the crowd that Obama’s ascent to the nation’s highest political office is not the final achievement of King’s vision.

The King Day crowd was to hear a keynote address from the Rev. Rick Warren, a Southern Baptist who opposes gay marriage. Warren was then heading to Washington to give the invocation at Tuesday’s inauguration, which is expected to draw more than three
million people.