ATLANTA, Jan. 7 (UPI) -- Atlanta is preparing for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. celebration to commemorate his 77th birthday, despite reported family feuds.
The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is a co-organizer of events.
The Rev. Joseph Lowery, co-founder of the SCLC with King, said the activities will keep in mind three major issues King tried to address -- poverty, racism and war -- which he called "the three-headed monster that continues to plague our world."
King's birthday was made a national holiday by President Ronald Reagan in 1983, observed on the third Monday of January, though his actual birthday is Jan. 15.
Some of the events will take place at the King Center, an institute founded by King's widow, Coretta Scott King in 1968 to advance the nonviolent social justice movement.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports the center is a source of a family feud among four King children.
Two want it to be sold to the National Park Service for preservation and others want it kept in the King name.
Added to this is the ailing condition of Scott King, who suffered a stroke in 2005.
She may miss the 2006 service honoring her husband at Ebenezer Baptist Church for the first time since his assassination in 1968.
