The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife, Coretta Scott King, no doubt would be honored to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, which was given to them today in ceremonies on Capitol Hill.
Are there more deserving people than the Kings? I think not.
Why, though, did it take 46 years after Dr. King’s assassination to award him this medal?
Some things escape my sometimes-feeble ability to understand certain processes. It took a decade to honor Rev. and Mrs. King. Congressional leaders from both parties hailed them as the “first family of the civil rights movement.”
It astounds me nonetheless that an honor — the highest civilian award given by Congress — would take this long, more than four decades after that rifle shot in Memphis, Tenn., ended Martin Luther King Jr.’s life.
Mrs. King would live until 2006. She carried on much of her husband’s work, speaking out on racial injustice and seeking equality for all Americans.
I’m not going to keep carping about the delay. I’ll just add that MLK and Coretta Scott King were two of this country’s greatest citizens. Their work stands for all time and it speaks for itself.