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Bush slammed at King funeral
08/02/2006 08:13 - (SA)
Lithonia - Speakers seized on the presence of United States President George W Bush to attack his policies on Tuesday at the funeral of Coretta Scott King, the first lady of the US civil rights movement.
Ex-president Jimmy Carter took a jab at Bush's domestic eavesdropping programme during six hours of sermons, speeches and song for the late widow of Nobel peace laureate Martin Luther King jun, assassinated in 1968.
The 10 000 mourners also heard the Reverend Joseph Lowery, a civil-rights leader, cite Mrs King's legacy as a champion of non-violence and racial equality while launching barbs at Bush administration policies on Iraq and health care.
Mrs King, 78, died on January 30 of complications from ovarian cancer. Her funeral at a Baptist church in Lithonia, Georgia, drew a "who's who" of the political and entertainment worlds and the US civil rights community.
Carter drew spirited applause with comments on federal efforts to spy on the Kings decades ago.
"It was difficult for them personally with the civil liberties of both husband and wife violated, and they became the targets of secret government wiretapping and other surveillance," Carter said.
Former President Bill Clinton, a favourite among mainstream civil rights leaders, offered a teasing hint of the possible presidential candidacy of his wife, New York Democratic Senator
Hillary Rodham Clinton, who stood smiling at his side.
"I'm honoured to be here with my president and my former presidents and ...," he trailed off, motioning in his wife's direction to loud and sustained applause.
Speaking first, ahead of his critics, Bush said: "I've come today to offer the sympathy of our entire nation at the passing of a woman who worked to make our nation whole.
"Having loved a leader she became a leader. And when she
spoke Americans listened closely, because her voice carried the
wisdom and goodness of a life well-lived," he said.
Bush laughed
Lowery, former head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which Martin Luther King helped found in 1957, gave a playful reading of a poem in eulogy of Mrs. King and made a none-too-veiled reference to the Iraq war launched by Bush.
"We know now there were no weapons of mass destruction over
there / But Coretta knew and we knew that there are weapons of
misdirection right down here / Millions without health
insurance. Poverty abounds. For war billions more but no more
for the poor," Lowery said.
The mourners responded with a standing ovation. Bush's immediate reaction could not be seen on television, but after Lowery finished speaking, the president shook his hand and laughed.
The service, billed as a celebration of Mrs King's life, featured performances by Stevie Wonder and Michael Bolton. Mourners joined a choir in singing some of King's favourite gospel songs, among them Amazing Grace. Mrs King's daughter Bernice, a minister, gave the eulogy, saying of her mother: "She was not just a national figure, she
was a global leader."
Coretta Scott King played a back-up role in the civil rights movement until her husband, a Baptist minister, was gunned down in Memphis on April 4 1968 when she felt she had to join the movement more actively.
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