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Coretta made the final funeral preparations. The service would take place on Tuesday, April 9—the day after the Memphis march. Dr. King’s casket was placed in the Sister’s Chapel at Spelman College, an all-black women’s college in Atlanta, for a few days before the funeral so that people could pay their respects to the slain leader. Coretta made her speech on the Saturday before her husband’s funeral. The site was Ebenezer Baptist Church, where Martin Luther King, Sr., had been pastor for more than 30 years. It was the King family’s church throughout Martin’s childhood, and Dr. King had eventually joined his father as its co-pastor. These strong family ties made Ebenezer the perfect place for Coretta to address Martin’s followers. “My husband faced the possibility of deathwithout bitterness or hatred,” Coretta said. “He never hated. He never despaired of well-doing. And he encouraged us to do likewise, and so he prepared us constantly for the tragedy…Our concern now is that his work does not die.” Coretta thanked the SCLC, the Ebenezer Church, family, friends, and Dr. King’s followers around the country and the world for their support. The leadership of the SCLC would pass to the Reverends Ralph Abernathy and Andrew Young. On Monday, Coretta and her three oldest children flew to Memphis to lead the march for the garbage collectors. Between 25,000 and 50,000 people marched to city hall with the King family, Ralph Abernathy, and other members of the SCLC. Despite the threats, there were no disruptions or incidents of violence. Indeed, as Coretta recalled in her autobiography, “In the shock and sorrow of Martin’s death the federal injunction against the march was either forgotten or rescinded; there was hardly a person in America who would have dared or even wanted to enforce it.” For the entire length of the protest, both marchers and onlookers remained silent in tribute to Dr. King. Reaching the platform at Memphis City Hall, Coretta sat with her children, looking out at the crowd. Several speeches preceded hers, and she felt that her children were comforted “to hear these good things said about their daddy.” Then

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