US marks Martin Luther King Jr’s death

Bells have tolled in cities across the US to mark the moment 50 years ago that civil rights leader Martin Luther King was gunned down by a white supremacist.
They rang out 39 times – one for each of Dr King’s years. The main event took place at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where the murder took place.
Prominent African-American leader Jesse Jackson, who was there at the time, told the crowd the pain was still raw.

Dr King, whose birthday is marked by a federal holiday, is held as a US hero.
At Wednesday evening’s Memphis event, one of the Nobel Laureate’s sons, Martin Luther King III, said dramatic progress had been made in race relations, but America was nowhere near where it needed to be.
Dr King, known to many Americans as MLK, was gunned down by a sniper while standing on his motel balcony during a trip to Tennessee to protest against the low pay of sanitation workers.
Also on Wednesday evening, in Dr King’s hometown of Atlanta, a wreath was laid at his crypt.
A wreath-laying ceremony was also held in Chicago, a city that was rocked by riots following Dr King’s assassination in 1968.
Hundreds of people convened in Washington, DC for a silent prayer walk on Wednesday from the MLK Memorial, which was erected in 2011, to the National Mall.
In a video message, former President Barack Obama said “as long as we’re still trying, Dr King’s soul is still rejoicing”.
President Donald Trump tweeted a video clip of himself praising Dr King on his birthday in January.
In a separate proclamation declaring Wednesday a “day to honour Dr King’s legacy”, Mr Trump said “it is not government that will achieve Dr King’s ideals” but rather the people, who “must actively aspire to secure the dream of living together as one people with a common purpose”. -BBC