Civil rights activists honour ML Kings memory by cheering Obama victory

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(5 Nov 2008) SHOTLIST • 1. Various of crowd inside Ebenezer Baptist Church • 2. SOUNDBITE (English) John Lewis, US Congressman, civil rights campaigner: • I want to thank Martin Luther King, Jr. He must be looking down from heaven saying, 'Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah!'. • 3. Church choir • 4. SOUNDBITE (English) Martin Luther King III, son of Martin Luther King, Jr.: • Our father used to say that a voteless people is a powerless people. And one of the most important steps that can be taken is that short step to the ballot box. • 5. Close up of cross • 6. SOUNDBITE (English) Christine King-Farris, sister of Martin Luther King, Jr.: • And I guess it was a farewell speech, when he said 'I may not get there with you, but we as a people will get to the promised land'. Tonight, we are on our way. • 7. Pan from TV to crowd • 8. SOUNDBITE (English) Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr.: • Well, my first reaction was tears. It's just so incredibly unbelievable, even in my lifetime. • 9. Crowd cheering • 10. SOUNDBITE (English) Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King, Jr.: • I was excited. But I was sad that my mother couldn't be here. Because in 2004, she called me the day after then Senator Obama made his speech at the Democratic convention, and she said, 'Did you hear the speech?' I said no. She said, 'I think we've got someone'. And what she was saying was 'I think we have the makings of our first African American president'. And to be here tonight, to witness this in her behalf is just incredible. • 11. Wide of church • 12. Various of celebrations outside church • STORYLINE: • Democrat Barack Obama was elected the first African-American president of the United States on Tuesday night in a historic triumph that overcame racial barriers as old as America itself. • On the street where the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was born, preached and is buried, thousands gathered to honour the sacrifice of the civil rights icon as they celebrated Obama's historic victory. • Cheers erupted from the pews at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta as Obama's victory was announced across the country. • As the news of a projected Obama victory flashed across a TV screen, men in the nearly all-black crowd pumped their fists and bowed their heads. • Women wept and embraced their children. • Screams of Thank you, Lord! were heard throughout the sanctuary. • Obama's victory also brought back memories of hard-fought battles of generations past. • John Lewis, a civil rights hero, said he was hardly able to believe that 40 years after he was left beaten and bloody on an Alabama bridge as he marched for the right for blacks to vote, he had cast a ballot for Obama. • Lewis appeared at the gathering along with King's son, Martin Luther King III, daughter Bernice King, and the civil rights leader's sister, Christine King Farris. • In a moving address King-Farris remembered one of her brother's messages. • And I guess it was a farewell speech, when he said: 'I may not get there with you, but we as a people will get to the promised land', she told the congregation, before adding: Tonight, we are on our way • King's daughter, Bernice King, said she couldn't believe a Black American had been elected president in her lifetime. • She said her mother, Coretta Scott King, who died in 2006, had seen something special in Obama when he addressed the Democratic National Convention in 2004. • • Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork • Twitter: / ap_archive • Facebook: / aparchives • Instagram: / apnews • • • You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...

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