2006年VOA标准英语-Mourners Pay Last Respects to Civil Rights

（单词翻译）

By Mike Cooper
Atlanta
04 February 2006

Coretta Scott King during The Martin Luther King, Jr. Annual Commemorative Service in the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Heritage Sanctuary¹, in Atlanta (File photo - Jan. 17, 2005)  
  
Mourners are lining² up to pay respects to Coretta Scott King, the widow of slain³ civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Mrs. King's body was taken in a horse-drawn carriage to the Capitol of the southern state of Georgia Saturday. Mrs. King, who died Monday at age 78, is to lie in state before her funeral on Tuesday.

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Hundreds of people lined the streets as an 18th-century carriage pulled by two horses brought the casket of Coretta Scott King to the Georgia state Capitol. Mrs. King is the first black person and the first woman to lie in state under the Gold Dome⁴ of Georgia's Capitol building.

During a brief ceremony, Governor Sonny Perdue called Mrs. King one of Georgia's most beloved citizens, as he offered condolences to the King family.

From right: Mary Perdue,  Gov. Sonny Perdue, Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, Dexter Scott King, Rev⁵. Bernice King, Martin Luther King III and Yolanda King  
  
"She proudly bore the torch of her husband's legacy⁶ of advancing freedom and social justice across our nation and around the world," said Sonny Perdue. "And she, after Martin's death, made it her legacy, as well. Through the work of the King Center that she founded, Mrs. King carried forth⁷ a message of peace across all nations, and, today, her loss is mourned across all nations, as well as here in her native home of Georgia."

The honors accorded Mrs. King by Georgia's governor were in sharp contrast to the way the death of her husband, civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., was treated after his 1968 assassination⁸. Then-Georgia Governor Lester Maddox did not attend the Reverend King's funeral, and refused to let his body lie in honor at the state Capitol.

Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, a black woman, noted⁹ progress in race relations that has occurred in the Southern United States and Mrs. King's role in facilitating change. "For I would not be in this place as mayor of Atlanta had Coretta not lived and fought for our right as African Americans to be here," said Shirley Franklin.

After the viewing at the Capitol, Mrs. King's casket will lie at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, where her husband preached in the years before his death. A funeral service will be held Tuesday at a suburban¹⁰ Atlanta church where the Kings' youngest daughter, Bernice, is a minister.