Where King Preached, Obama's the Word

USA TODAY visited four churches where King gave sermons in March 1968.

ByABC News
January 19, 2009, 11:29 AM

Jan. 19, 2009— -- The dean of Washington National Cathedral calls it "one of those grace notes of history" — the confluence, today and Tuesday, of Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Barack Obama's Inauguration Day.

Obama told USA TODAY last week he wasn't sure exactly how King's words would be reflected in his own speech Tuesday "because I'm such a student of his speeches and his writings that they're probably burned into my consciousness." But, he added, "certainly my presence is gonna reflect him, because if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be standing there."

The pairing of King Day and Inauguration Day -- when the nation's first African-American president will look across the National Mall to where King in 1963 declared, "I have a dream!" -- raises a question: Is Obama the fulfillment of King's dream? And what, exactly, was that dream?

On Sunday, USA TODAY reporters visited four churches where King gave Sunday sermons in March 1968, during the last month of his life. They range from his home pulpit, Ebenezer Baptist in Atlanta, to a converted movie theater in Harlem to the grand National Cathedral.

Preachers and congregants said King would be gratified by Obama's inauguration — but not satisfied. "He'd say this is a great moment to celebrate, but we ought to hold the new president's feet to the fire," said Samuel T. Lloyd III, dean of the National Cathedral.

Raphael Warnock, senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist and a student of King's life, agreed.

"We will have to push him in the same way we must push any president to do the right thing, the way Martin had to push Lyndon Johnson" to pass civil and voting rights laws in the mid-'60s, he said.

In the congregation at Ebenezer was Ronald White, a Detroit minister. "I don't think most people have a good understanding of what Martin Luther King was really about," he said. "But I think that this younger generation, because of Obama, is starting to learn."

That message also was celebrated Sunday at the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church in Washington — where the worshippers included Obama and his family.

At this feel-good moment in American history, King's last month offers a reminder of how heartbreaking politics can be for anyone with a conviction — or a dream.

At times he seemed to be preaching to himself in these sermons: "Unfulfilled Dreams" on March 3, 1968, at Ebenezer; "The Meaning of Hope" on March 17 at Holman United Methodist in Los Angeles; "A Knock at Midnight" on March 24 at Canaan Baptist in New York City's Harlem section; "Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution" on March 31 at the National Cathedral.