By Michael Motes

Pledging full support of Congressional passage of a bill marking January 15 as a national holiday in observance of the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Senator Edward M. Kennedy gained one of more than a dozen standing ovations and speech-halting bursts of applause as he addressed a substantial gathering at Ebenezer Baptist Church 1st Friday in connection with week long activities surrounding the late civil rights leader’s 50th birth anniversary.

Senator Kennedy, a member of the Board of Trustees of the King Center of Social Change, began his address in a casual manner, remarking that he had talked with his mother earlier in the day and that she was quite pleased when he told her he was “going to Atlanta to attend Church.”

But the casual presentation was quickly abandoned as Kennedy took as a major point of his address the theme “Now is the time,” taken from a speech by the late civil rights leader to the Massachusetts Legislature.

“Now is the time” was echoed by the audience as Kennedy voiced his support of the Equal Rights Amendment, “to end the age-old discrimination against women in our society”; “to redeem the promise of the Humphrey-Hawkins Act,” and the “struggle against racism, not just in the United States but in Southern Africa and wherever else it scars the human spirit.”

Referring to the late Dr. King as “one of the most gifted and extraordinary Americans this country has ever produced,” Kennedy reminded the audience that while great advances have been made in the Civil Rights Movement, there remains much to be done.

“As a nation, no greater tribute to Martin Luther King, Jr., can be made than to carry on his work,” the senator stated amid thunderous applause.

“His roots were here in Georgia, but in a larger sense, his roots knew no boundary of race or color,” Kennedy said, adding that he considered King “the first Ambassador of Human Rights” that the nation had produced.

His emotions reaching a peak, Kennedy stated, “The question is where do we stand. Do we defer the dream? Do we deny the call? Do we watch reluctantly from the sidelines while progress slows and hope grows dim? Do we raise the fallen standard and hold it high again?”

As the audience cheered, Kennedy stressed his support of the ERA; the ratification of the District of Columbia voting amendment; and the adoption of a program of “universal, comprehensive, national health insurance.”

“Black or white,” Kennedy concluded, “North and South, let us answer the call of Dr. King to work with confidence that we can fulfill the dream -- the dream of freedom.”

During the course of his address, Kennedy also highly praised Coretta Scott King and other members of the King family as “the brightest beacons of the Civil Rights Movement” and expressed his hope that the final addition to the King Center for Social Change, to be called Freedom Hall, would be completed in the near future.