MLK III: Arizona shootings underscore father’s message
ATLANTA (AP) – The son of Martin Luther King Jr. says the recent shootings in Arizona that killed six and left a congresswoman critically wounded shows the work of his father must continue.
Martin Luther King III spoke Saturday at a dinner where the King Center is honoring the late Massachusetts Sen. Edward M. Kennedy’s work on civil rights. A posthumous award is being presented to the senator’s widow, Vicki Kennedy. The senator, who died in 2009 at age 77 following a battle with cancer, helped make King’s birthday a national holiday.
King’s son said the shooting of Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords make his father’s message of nonviolence resonate particularly strongly.
Both families have been touched by political violence.
President John Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, and King and Sen. Robert Kennedy were slain in 1968.
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Online:
The King Center: http://www.thekingcenter.org
The Associated Press
01/15/11 20:48