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King family, Ebenezer gather to remember MLK's mother on 50th anniversary of her murder

Ernie Suggs, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on

Published in News & Features

McBath, who became a gun advocate after her son, Jordan Davis, was murdered in 2012, is a favorite to win her fourth term in Congress in November.

“This is a public health crisis because when we are placing more precedent of guns over God,” McBath said. “We are out of order. It is going to take a long time to get over this scourge and change this narrative.”

Warnock called gun violence, “an epidemic in the United States of America.”

“It is important to underscore that this doesn’t happen anywhere else that is not at war,” Warnock said. “It forces the question, why is it happening here?”

Warnock estimated that there is at least one mass shooting somewhere in the United States every day. He said that when shootings occur, gun advocates often point to mental illness as the cause. Warnock said the problem is bigger than that and pointed to policy.

Earlier this month, the United States Supreme Court overturned a ban on bump stocks, a device that enables semiautomatic rifles to fire at speeds rivaling machine guns. In 2017, a man opened fire from the window of his Las Vegas hotel room killing 60 people after firing more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition in 11 minutes.

“Chenault was mentally ill, but he was only able to kill two people,” Warnock said. “He didn’t have bump stocks. He didn’t have an AR-15, which he would have been able to get today. That is the difference that public policy makes. We are a culture awash with guns.”

 

As the choir sang at the end of the nearly three-hour service, they were accompanied by a drummer, a piano player and an organist, playing a portable red organ.

Members of the congregation stood, shouted and clapped with them, including Jarvis Wilson.

Then, for the first time, he sat down. At Alberta King’s organ. The same one she played for decades as the musical director of Ebenezer.

The same one she began to play when she was killed.

Wilson, who was one of Alberta King’s music students, began playing “The Lord’s Prayer.”

The congregation closed their eyes and bowed their heads.


©2024 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Visit at ajc.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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