America Pauses to Honor and Remember MLK

ATLANTA (AP) — An overflow crowd showed up at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta to celebrate the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy.

U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro said this year marks the 50th anniversary of King's visit to Chicago to launch a campaign for fair housing.

Castro said King moved into an apartment on Chicago's west side and later described seeing "a daily battle against depression and hopelessness" as babies were attacked by rats and children wore clothes too thin to protect against the cold winter weather. Castro said protesters eventually got the Chicago real estate board to embrace housing laws that did not discriminate.

Across the street, at Ebenezer's older sanctuary where King preached, visitors prayed in wooden pews and listened to tapes of King speaking.

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COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The chief civil rights organization in South Carolina has wrapped up its first King Day at the Dome rally after winning its long fight to have the Confederate flag removed from Statehouse grounds.

The rebel banner removed last summer after nine black churchgoers were killed in Charleston was only mentioned a few times Monday.

Frequent speaker Ronald Epps says the Statehouse finally feels like his capitol with the Confederate flag gone from the front lawn.

State NAACP President Lonnie Randolph says his group will keep fighting racially inequality. The theme of this year's rally was improving education.

Randolph says he is sure the Republican-dominated South Carolina Legislature will do something this year to make sure the NAACP returns to fight injustice on Martin Luther King Day in 2017.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama performed double duty on the federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

The Obamas assembled a garden bed and planted vegetable seeds at a District of Columbia elementary school in remembrance of the slain civil rights leader and to celebrate Mrs. Obama's anti-childhood obesity initiative.

The White House says the school has many students who come from military families, which is another of the first lady's causes.

The Obamas also helped stuff bags with books for needy children.

The White House says each bag included a copy of "Oh the Things You Can Do that are Good for You!" by Dr. Seuss.

Young people who participate in a White House mentoring program joined the Obamas. Volunteers from the AmeriCorps national service program also participated.