Page 37 - Spelman50thReunionBook

family and dignitaries arrived with the ancestral cemetery. Kings parents were

funeral cortège after the private family buried there. Again, the crowd was
funeral at Ebenezer Baptist that morning. enormous as he was laid to rest amid
We arrived early Tuesday morning for our mountains of flowers of every hue. After

final instructions and realized people had the clergy and family left, within minutes

camped out on the Quadrangle overnight the florals were stripped clean by those
and were everywhere, including in the wanting a memento to treasure forever. I
trees. We secured the area as instructed am grateful I was able to participate and

but after hours of waiting folks decided will cherish forever my memories of this
they wanted to sit in the VIP seats and historic, once in a lifetime experience.

simply pushed us aside and sat down. It
took the Morehouse Police and SCLC to

move them just in time for the arrival of
the family and dignitaries. Dr. Mays gave

the eulogy and Mahalia Jackson sang but I
remember little else. There were more

people than I had ever seen in one place, it
was shoulder to shoulder everywhere, a

sea of faces. Even so, there was quiet
reverence, no violence and no fear. My

final memories are of Kings interment at
South View Cemetery, Atlanta' oldest

Black cemetery chartered in 1866 and my