Kayden
Gray, 6, holds up a sign before a
march to mark the birthday of slain
civil rights leader Martin Luther
King Jr. in San Francisco, Monday,
Jan. 15, 2018. (Photo: Jeff Chiu,
AP)
King
children
criticize
Trump,
decry
racism
on MLK
holiday
By
JONATHAN
LANDRUM
Jr.
ATLANTA
- Martin
Luther
King
Jr.’s
children
and the
pastor
of an
Atlanta
church
where he
preached
decried
disparaging
remarks
President
Donald
Trump is
said to
have
made
about
African
countries,
while
protests
between
Haitian
immigrants
and
Trump
supporters
broke
out near
the
president’s
Florida
resort
Monday,
the
official
federal
holiday
honoring
King.
At
gatherings
across
the
nation,
activists,
residents
and
teachers
honored
the late
civil
rights
leader
on what
would
have
been his
89th
birthday
and
ahead of
the 50th
anniversary
of his
assassination
in
Memphis,
Tennessee.
Trump
marked
his
first
Martin
Luther
King Jr.
Day as
president
buffeted
by
claims
that
during a
meeting
with
senators
on
immigration
last
week, he
used a
vulgarity
to
describe
African
countries
and
questioned
the need
to allow
more
Haitians
into the
U.S. He
also is
said to
have
asked
why the
country
couldn’t
have
more
immigrants
from
nations
like
Norway.
In
Washington,
King’s
eldest
son,
Martin
Luther
King
III,
criticized
Trump,
saying,
“When a
president
insists
that our
nation
needs
more
citizens
from
white
states
like
Norway,
I don’t
even
think we
need to
spend
any time
even
talking
about
what it
says and
what it
is.”
Haitian
and
pro-Trump
protesters
yelled
at each
other
from
opposing
corners
just
down the
street
from the
president’s
Palm
Beach
Mar-a-Lago
retreat.
(Jan.
15)
He
added,
“We got
to find
a way to
work on
this
man’s
heart.”
In
Atlanta,
King’s
daughter,
the Rev.
Bernice
King,
told
hundreds
of
people
who
packed
the pews
of the
Ebenezer
Baptist
Church
that
they
“cannot
allow
the
nations
of the
world to
embrace
the
words
that
come
from our
president
as a
reflection
of the
true
spirit
of
America.”
“We
are one
people,
one
nation,
one
blood,
one
destiny.
... All
of
civilization
and
humanity
originated
from the
soils of
Africa,”
Bernice
King
said.
“Our
collective
voice in
this
hour
must
always
be
louder
than the
one who
sometimes
does not
reflect
the
legacy
of my
father.”
Church
pastor
the Rev.
Raphael
Warnock
also
took
issue
with
Trump’s
campaign
slogan
to “Make
America
Great
Again.”
Warnock
said he
thinks
America
“is
already
great
... in
large
measure
because
of
Africa
and
African
people.”
Down
the
street
from
Trump’s
Mar-a-Lago
retreat
in Palm
Beach,
Florida,
on
Monday,
Haitian
protesters
and
Trump
supporters
yelled
at each
other
from
opposing
corners.
Trump
was
staying
at the
resort
for the
Martin
Luther
King Jr.
holiday
weekend.
Video
posted
by
WPEC-TV
showed
several
hundred
pro-Haiti
demonstrators
yelling
from one
side of
the
street
Monday
while
waving
Haitian
flags.
The
Haitians
and
their
supporters
shouted
“Our
country
is not a
shithole,”
referring
to
comments
the
president
reportedly
made.
Trump
has said
that is
not the
language
he used.
The
smaller
pro-Trump
contingent
waved
American
flags
and
campaign
posters
and
yelled
“Trump
is
making
America
great
again.”
One man
could be
seen
telling
the
Haitians
to leave
the
country.
Police
kept the
sides
apart.
Trump
dedicated
his
weekly
address
to the
nation,
released
Monday,
to King.
“Dr.
King’s
dream is
our
dream,
it is
the
American
dream,
it’s the
promise
stitched
into the
fabric
of our
nation,
etched
into the
hearts
of our
people
and
written
into the
soul of
humankind,”
he said
in the
address,
which he
tweeted
to his
followers.
“It is
the
dream of
a world
where
people
are
judged
by who
they
are, not
how they
look or
where
they
come
from.”
The
president’s
remarks
appeared
not to
resonate
with the
Rev. Al
Sharpton,
who also
used the
holiday
to take
aim at
the
racial
rhetoric
Trump is
said to
have
used.
“Trump
Tower is
in the
wrong
state,”
Sharpton
told a
crowd of
200 at
the
National
Action
Network
in
Harlem.
He said
it was
embarrassing
that
Trump is
from New
York.
“What
we’re
going to
do about
Donald
Trump is
going to
be the
spirit
of
Martin
Luther
King
Day,” he
said.