Photo: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images
President Joe Biden honored the memory of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the temple where he used to preach in favor of freedom and justice, the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
“I have spoken before Parliament, kings and queens, leaders from all over the world. I have been doing this for a long time,” President Biden said, shortly before acknowledging: “this is intimidating“.
He was in the pulpit from where Dr. Luther King Jr. preached and noted that he is the first US president to do so.
“I have two heroes: Bobby Kennedy… And, no kidding, Dr. King,” said the Democrat. “Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was a nonviolent warrior for justice […] We come to contemplate his moral vision and commit ourselves to his path.”
The president was accompanied by senators from Georgia, Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, as well as representatives Hank Johnson and Lucy McBath, in addition to the mayor of Atlanta, Andre Dickens, and the mayor of Savannah, Van Johnson, among other officials with whom he took pictures.
“[Luther King Jr.] he followed the path of Moses, a path of inspiration, and always telling people not to be afraid…and like John the Baptist, he prepared us for the greatest hope to come,” Biden added.
He recognized that the US is facing difficult times, where democracy is at risk.
“This is a moment of choice […] We have to choose community over chaos,” he said.
The president expressed concern that democratic institutions could collapse.
“Nothing is guaranteed in our democracy“, stated the president, mentioning what happened recently in Brazil, where followers of Jair Bolsonaro attacked Congress and the Superior Court of Justice. Biden did not say so, but that attack is similar to the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Congress at the hands of MAGA supporters of donald trump.
Senator Warnock, who last December managed to retain his position for the Democrats, called Luther King Jr. the greatest American “prophet” of the 20th century.
“Now, there really are too many elected officials here to name,” Warnock said to laughter, but celebrated.
“Who but Martin Luther King… could bring the President of the United States here,” he said to applause. He referred to the Ossoff as his brother “from another mother”.
“He is younger than me, but he is the main senator,” he explained.
He celebrated the presence and speech of President Biden, recalling that other rulers had come to the templelike Jimmy Carter, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, but Biden had been the first to deliver a speech from the pulpit.
“This is the first president, the first sitting president, to deliver the sermon on Sunday morning,” Warnock said.