Acknowledging Martin Luther King Jr.'s Legacy

11:03

January 21, 2013

While taking the oath of office on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, President Barack Obama laid his hand on two bibles — one owned by Abraham Lincoln, the other by Martin Luther King, Jr. The two men and their legacies loomed large over this inauguration. President Obama acknowledged them directly in his speech.

In 1865, during his second inaugural, Lincoln pledged to see the Civil War through to the end, until "until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword." Obama echoed those words.

And Obama went on to acknowledge that it was on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial that Martin Luther King Jr. gave his historic 1963 "I Have a Dream Speech."

Jonathan Walton delivered the keynote address for Boston's 43rd Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Breakfast and he joins Radio Boston to reflect on King's legacy.

Guest:

Jonathan Walton, professor of religion and society at Harvard's Divinity School

This segment aired on January 21, 2013.