2008 candidates mark King assassination anniversary
— -- The presidential candidates marked the 40th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s death on Friday with an apology for not backing a federal holiday for the civil rights activist, to a promise to create a czar to help the poor and a call to fight the social and economic injustices that still exist today.
"We can be slow as well to give greatness its due, a mistake I made myself long ago when I voted against a federal holiday in memory of Dr. King," Sen. John McCain said in a speech in Memphis. "I was wrong and eventually realized that, in time to give full support for a state holiday in Arizona. We can all be a little late sometimes in doing the right thing, and Dr. King understood this about his fellow Americans."
King was assassinated in Memphis on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel on April 4, 1968, while helping organize a strike by Memphis sanitation workers, then some of the poorest of the city's working poor.
"Forty years ago today, America was robbed of one of history's most consequential advocates for equality and civil rights," President Bush said in a statement. "We have made progress on Dr. King's dream, yet the struggle is not over. Ensuring freedom and equality for all Americans remains one of our most important responsibilities."
Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, which represented the workers then and now, marched Friday from their downtown headquarters to the motel.
Sen. Barack Obama said Friday it was worth reflecting on what King was doing in Memphis.
"For years, these workers had served their city without complaint, picking up other people's trash for little pay and even less respect. Passersby would call them 'walking buzzards,' and in the segregated South, most were forced to use separate drinking fountains and bathrooms," Obama said while campaigning in Fort Wayne, Ind.
"But in 1968, these workers decided they'd had enough, and over 1,000 went on strike. Their demands were modest — better wages, better benefits, and recognition of their union. But the opposition was fierce. Their vigils were met with handcuffs. Their protests turned back with mace. And at the end of one march, a 16-year-old boy lay dead."
