The 2013 Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemorative Service held on the federal holiday at Ebenezer Baptist Church located near The King Center in Atlanta, GA was stirring, thought provoking, and memorable. There were many speakers from various backgrounds and ethnicities, but there was a common topic mentioned several times-gun control.
Dr. Bernice King, the youngest daughter of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminded the audience that her father was against the use of guns during the civil rights movement-a time where the use of guns for protection would have been especially justified.
She described her father’s non-violent approach as “one of the bravest experiences of gun control that we've ever heard of in the history of our nation.”
As blacks were being beaten, lynched, hosed, jailed, shot and killed for their participation in marches and demonstrations, many did not understand why Dr. King took the “turn the other cheek” approach.
Dr. King sums it up best by saying, “Nonviolence is a powerful and just weapon which cuts without wounding and ennobles the man who wields it. It is a sword that heals.”
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