Bush Booed at Martin Luther King Gravesite

by MLK follower Friday, Jan. 16, 2004 at 10:51 PM

Protestors shout from across the street while resident Bu$h made a stop at the Martin Luther King, Jr., crypt in Atlanta, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2004. Nearly 1,000 protestors booed and jeered Bu$h for his war against Iraq as well as his reactionary policies against Americans. (AP Photo/Ric Feld)

Bush Booed at Martin...
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Bush Booed at Martin Luther King Gravesite
Thu, Jan 15, 2004

ATLANTA - Nearly 1,000 people booed resident Bu$h. as he laid a wreath at the grave of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King. Seeing Bu$h's visit as nothing but a shallow gesture designed to woo African American voters... the predominantly black crowd of protesters shouted "Bush go home" and "peace not war. " The protesters also carried signs and banners with slogans like "Money for jobs and housing, not war" and "It's not a photo-op George."

Bu$h was not invited by the King family to the annual ceremony honoring MLK, but King's widow Coretta Scott King did not oppose the resident placing a wreath on King's grave. Bush attended the ceremony only long enough to place the wreath, bow his head a few moments for the cameras, and then depart while protesters booed loudly.

King's birthday is commemorated by a national holiday on Monday, recognizing his non-violent leadership of the black civil rights struggle in the 1950s and 1960s. "Today, all Americans benefit from Dr. King's work and his legacy of courage, dignity, and moral clarity," Bu$h said in a written statement for the annual holiday. But apparently the resident, whose armed forces now occupy Iraq, forgot about Dr. King's message of peace and non-violence.

"Bush's policies contradict everything Dr. King stood for," said Ann Mauney, a member of the Georgia Peace and Justice Coalition. U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Maryland Democrat and chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, criticized the grave visit as "yet another symbolic gesture that lacks any real substance. Every policy decision of the Bush Administration including the war in Iraq, healthcare, jobs, the economy, judicial nominations, housing, the environment, as well as secondary and higher education, has done nothing to strengthen Dr. King's dream," Cummings said.