WASHINGTON -- President Reagan signed a law Wednesday creating a national holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr., and -- quoting King's 'I have a dream' speech -- said the slain civil rights leader 'changed America forever.'
With about 200 civil rights leaders gathered under bright sunshine in the Rose Garden, Reagan handed Coretta Scott King the pen with which he designated the third Monday in January a national holiday in memory of her husband. Afterward, guests sang 'We Shall Overcome.'
Reagan had initially opposed the legislation, approved by the House and Senate by overwhelming margins to create a 10th federal holiday. But he told the White House gathering King in his '39 short years changed America forever.'
'In America in the 50's and 60's, one of the important crises we faced was racial discrimination. The man whose words and deeds who stirred the nation to the very depths of our soul was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.,' Reagan said.
'Often he was beaten and imprisoned, but he never stopped teaching non-violence.'
Quoting King's 1963 dramatic speech on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, Reagan said, 'I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of slaves and the sons of slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.'
'If American history grows from two centuries to 20,' Reagan said, 'his words that day will never be forgotten.'
Said Mrs. King: 'All right-thinking people, all right-thinking Americans are joined in spirit with us this day.'
'America is a more democratic nation, a more just nation, a more peaceful nation because Martin Luther King Jr. became her pre-eminent non-violent commander,' she said.
After the bill signing, guests began signing 'We Shall Overcome,' the civil rights anthem, and the soft hymnal chorus swelled row after row until the entire audience was on its feet signing.
Reagan and Vice President George Bush shook hands with the guests but did not join in the singing.
There was no mention by either Reagan or Mrs. King of the controversy the bill engendered before final congressional approval by the Senate two weeks ago.
That night, Reagan said at a new conference he would have preferred a day honoring King on his Jan. 15 birthday without creating a national holiday.
He also declined to criticize Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., for seeking to unseal FBI records the conservative senator said would show King associated with Communists. Reagan said it might take '35 years' to see if Helms was correct but that he would sign the bill because of the 'symbolism.'
Mrs. King later said she considered Reagan's remarks 'an insult' and Reagan telephoned her to apologize. The bill-signing was upgraded from a small event in the Oval Office to the Rose Garden ceremony and Mrs. King was invited.
King was assassinated April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tenn., at the age of 39 while trying to organize a garbage workers' strike. He was the youngest man to win the Nobel Peace Prize, in 1964.
Civil rights leaders of King's era filled the audience, including Mayor Andrew Young of Atlanta, Mayor Marion Barry of the Distict of Columbia and the Rev. Jesse Jackson.
Asked if he felt Reagan was sincere, Jackson, who plans to seek the Democratic presidential nomination, said: 'I wouldn't choose to question his motives. I just accept the impact of what he did today. It certainly etches for him a significant place in national history.'
