The King Center: 50 Years of Preserving The Dream

Samantha McKinney cried when she entered the Visitor’s Center at The King Center.

“It was just overwhelming, emotional,” McKinney, 32, said. “He went through all that he did for the people and because of it he got killed. So truly a man after God.”

It was the first time the 32-year-old from Arkansas was visiting the center at 449 Auburn Avenue in Atlanta. But, her boyfriend had already been there four or five times.

The couple stopped to buy a gift from the bookstore and gift shop with their host, Cindy Sewell. And they were far from the only ones. During the summer, as many as 1,000 visitors a day stop by the bookstore, according to the clerk. She said they come from as far away as Australia, Asia, Africa and Central America, and the staff expected an even larger crowd Tuesday which was the 50th Anniversary of The King Center .

In 1968, Coretta Scott King established the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change (The King Center), which moved to its current location in 1981. It sits adjacent to the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church where Dr. King served as co-pastor with his father.

Sewell said the trio had just come from the outdoor memorial where the crypt of Dr. King and his wife are surrounded by reflecting pools and an eternal flame. There is a walkway that leads into the Freedom Hall where art from Africa and Georgia hang from the ceiling.

Pictures of the King family also adorn the wall. One picture especially captured Ashelyn Mack Mosby’s attention. It was the picture of Coretta Scott King holding her young daughter at Dr. King’s funeral. April 4th was the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination.

“I’m overwhelmed,” said Mosby who had brought her 13-year-old daughter, Sarai, to see the Center. “Being a mother myself it messes with me.

“The strength in Mrs. King’s eyes as well as the sorrow, out of it all that always touched me.”

Nearly a million people visit The King Center, a nonprofit, each year to pay their respects to Dr. King’s legacy. Many bring their children to learn about the man who touched so many lives. And the woman who, in her own right, made an impact as well.

Mosby and her daughter then went to the second floor of the Freedom Hall where they browsed the Rosa Parks and The Gandhi Room.

The Rosa Parks Room includes art works, photographs and an exhibit case containing memorabilia pertaining to Rosa Louise Parks, “Mother of the Civil Rights Movement.”

And, the Gandhi Room pays tribute to Mohandas K. Gandhi, whose life and work provided inspiration and philosophical insights that empowered Dr. King’s leadership of the American Civil Rights Movement.

“Did they meet?” Sarai asked her mom. Mosby, who is from Washington, D.C., showed her a picture of Gandhi and Dr. King greeting each other.

They moved on to the exhibits that honor Dr. and Mrs. King. The room features a photographic history of the Kings, along with a unique collection of items from their personal lives.

“She had to hold it together for everyone,” said one woman while looking at a picture of Mrs. King with former First Lady, Jacqueline Kennedy , at Dr. King’s funeral. “How elegant she was despite what she was going through. She is the ultimate steel magnolia.”

The woman had brought the two daughters she adopted from South Korea to see the King Center for the first time. But, this was her second visit.

She said she likes hearing Dr. King’s voice as it fills the sanctuary. “I just want to sit and listen to him. It’s so soothing, and it gives you hope. This is the best monument ever, and I used to live in Washington, D.C.”