Martin Luther King Jr.

The words of Coretta Scott King, wife of the great Martin Luther King at his funeral...

"My husband often told the children that if a man had nothing that was worth dying for, then he was not fit to live. H said also

that it's not how long you live, but how well you live. He knew that at any moment his physical life coulf be cut short, and we faced this possibility squarely and honestly. My husband faced the possibility of death without bitterness or hatred. He knew that this was a sick society, totally infested with racism and violence that questioned his integrity, maligned his motives, and distorted his views, which would ultimately lead to his death. And he struggled with every ounce of his energy to save that society from itself.
He never hated. He never despaired of well-doing. And he encouraged us to do likewise, and so he prepared us consantly for the tragedy.
I am surprised and pleased at the success of his teaching, for our children say calmly,'Daddy is not dead; he may be physically dead, but his spirit will never die.'
Ours has been a religious home, and this too has made this burden easier to bear. Our concern now is that his work does not die. He gave his life for the poor of the world - the garbage workers of Memphis and the peasants of Vietnam. Nothing hurt him more than that man

could attempt no way to solve problems except through violence. He gave his life in search of a more excellent way, a more effective way, a creative rather than a destructive way.
We intend to go on in search of that way, and I hope that you who loved and admired him would join us in fulfilling his dream.
The day that Negro people and others in bondage are truly free, on the day want is abolished, on the day wars are no more, on that day I know my husband will rest in a long-deserved peace."