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By WOODY BAIRD, Associated Press Writer
1 minute ago



MEMPHIS, Tenn. - On the 40th anniversary of his assassination, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. is to be honored as a champion of peace in the city where he died.



"Here was a man who understood nonviolence at a depth that I had never known before," said C.T. Vivian, a former King associate.

Presidential candidates, civil rights leaders, labor activists and thousands of citizens were expected to come together Friday in Memphis to honor King for his devotion to racial equality and economic justice.

"The whole nation flinched" when King was killed by a rifle shot on April 4, 1968, said writer Cynthia Griggs Fleming, one of the many historians, commentators and activists in town for panel discussions and lectures on King's legacy.

King advised his followers to keep working for equal rights for all citizens, "to keep on moving," no matter what obstacles they faced, Fleming said in a talk Thursday at a Memphis church.

"Don't be so consumed by the pain that you don't hear the message," she said.

Presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain were scheduled to take part in the anniversary day events that were to include a "recommitment march" through Memphis and the laying of wreaths at the site of King's assassination. Sen. Barack Obama will be campaigning in Indiana.

King was cut down on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel while helping organize a strike by Memphis sanitation workers, then some of the poorest of the city's working poor.

His son, Martin Luther King III, wrote in an opinion piece published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday that the nation is still plagued by poverty. He urged presidential candidates to vow to appoint a cabinet-level officer who would help the poor.

"We're not doing anywhere near enough," he said Friday during an interview with his sister, Bernice, on the "Today" show.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080404/ap_on_re_us/king_anniversary