President Joe Biden on Sunday will speak at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta in honor of the Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday – the place where Dr. King was baptized, became a co-pastor alongside his father and the site of his funeral.
Current pastor and U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., invited Biden to the church to give the address this Sunday, making him the first sitting president to speak there.
Monday marks the day that would have been Dr. King’s 94th birthday.
In a proclamation on the holiday, Biden outlined how King imagined a “different America” than the one that denied Black Americans basic rights, like being in certain public spaces or voting.
“He gave us a roadmap to unify, to heal, and to sustain the blessings of the Nation to all of its people,” Biden wrote.
“But the work continues because it remains unfinished.”
The president last visited Atlanta to give an impassioned speech on voting rights one year ago, drawing a throughline from the American South that denied Black people’s rights to today’s increase in state laws that restrict voting, which most often impacts people of color.
During that speech, Biden went his furthest yet by calling for changes to Senate rules in order to pass federal protections.
Yet federal voting rights reform, such as the bill named for civil rights champion Congressman John Lewis, stalled in the last Congress, leaving advocates calling for Biden to do more.
The issue will come up again on Sunday, but the president has “exhausted what he can do” via executive power to advance voting rights, said Keisha Lance Bottoms, the former mayor of Atlanta who is now in charge of public engagement for the White House.
As Bottoms previewed the visit, she said the president’s team had been working on the speech for a couple of weeks and had not yet finished. Members of King’s family are expected to be present on Sunday.
Bottoms also said the president would have the opportunity to hear from local leaders, church leaders and civil rights advocates when he visits the church. Sen. Warnock has been “very vocal” about issues important to his community as both a political candidate and pastor, she added.
“Ebenezer is a cornerstone of the Atlanta community,” she said. “I’m sure the President will get an earful on what our needs and our desires are for our country when he’s there.”
For his part, Biden in his proclamation said on Sunday he would “pay my respects and express my gratitude for [King’s] life and legacy by speaking at services.”
“On this day of commemoration, service, and action, let us hold up a mirror to America and ask ourselves: What kind of country do we want to be?” he wrote.
“Will we honor Dr. King’s legacy by rising together – buttressed by each other’s successes, enriched by each other’s differences, and made whole by each other’s compassion?” Biden added. “I believe we can.”
On Monday’s holiday, Biden will join Rev. Al Sharpton at the National Action Network’s breakfast, where the president will also speak.
At the breakfast, Arndrea Waters King, the wife of Martin Luther King III, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and other leaders will be honored for their work in keeping “Dr. King’s mission alive,” according to the White House.
On Friday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, who is Haitian-American, spoke personally about the trip to honor Dr. King’s legacy, noting that her and Bottoms as Black women “have broken barriers.”
“We are both looking forward to joining the president on this trip and being in what has been the epicenter of the movement [for] civil rights in this country for decades,” she said.
