Daughter hails ‘apostle of non-violence’ Martin Luther King

The Rev Bernice A King recalled her father as a civil rights leader and great orator whose message of peaceful protest is still vital decades later.

“We decided to start this day remembering the apostle of non-violence,” she said during a ceremony to award the Martin Luther King Jr Nonviolent Peace Prize held at the King Centre in Atlanta.

In Memphis, where King died, hundreds of people bundled in hats and coats gathered early for a march led by the same sanitation workers union whose low pay King had come to protest when he was shot.

The Memphis events are scheduled to feature King’s contemporaries, including the Rev Jesse Jackson, the Rev Al Sharpton and US representative John Lewis, along with celebrities such as the rapper Common.

In the evening, the Atlanta events culminate with a bell-ringing and wreath-laying at King’s crypt to mark the moment when he was gunned down on the balcony of the old Lorraine Motel on April 4 1968. He was 39.

Martin Luther King III speaks at the Mason Temple of the Church of God in Christ, Tuesday, April 3, 2018, in Memphis, Tenn

Donald Trump issued a proclamation in honour of the anniversary, saying: “In remembrance of his profound and inspirational virtues, we look to do as Dr King did while this world was privileged enough to still have him.”

The president has been…