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Across the street from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s church, his daughter urged people Sunday to remember his dream of equality.
"I am a 100 percent, dyed-in-the-wool, card-carrying believer in the dream," Yolanda King said.
King, 50, spoke in the Horizon Sanctuary of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, presenting civil rights history before a signing for her new book, "Embracing Your Power in 30 Days."
King worked with a life coach, Wanda Marie, on the autobiographical book about King's life and coping with fame. "Just because you're born to powerful parents, that doesn't automatically mean you're empowered," King said.
She noted that this was the first King holiday she will spend since the death last year of her mother, Coretta Scott King.
An actress and producer, King presented civil rights history theatrically. At times, she adopted the character of a child ready to take her first desegregated bus ride, or that of a Mississippi organizer marching on Washington.
For people too young to remember civil rights protests met by fire hoses and police dogs, the tales might "all seem like misty images from a horror story," King said.
She spoke of people's "power of choice" to create change, as they did when people stopped riding buses during the Birmingham bus boycott.
"That is a power that no government, no person can take away from you," she said.
She also called for people to change their view of the King holiday.
"The King holiday is a day off," she said, "but it has to be a day on for service."
Copyright 2007 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
