WP's Colbert King: A Fitting Funeral for Mrs. King

[Pirate Smile]

A Fitting Funeral for Mrs. King

By Colbert I. King
Saturday, February 11, 2006; Page A19

Speech and expression are coming in for some hard knocks these days. Enraged Muslims are marching by the thousands over cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. The Post's editorial page is being pilloried for publishing an op-ed piece by a leader of the terrorist group Hamas and for publishing a cartoon that critics mistakenly describe as mocking military amputees. And now some conservative talking heads are out of sorts because of what was said from the pulpit of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., during Coretta Scott King's funeral on Tuesday.

The fuss over the funeral is probably the silliest snit of all.

-snip-
Now I must be careful here with generalizations, but Karla FC Holloway, a Duke University professor and author of African American mourning stories, has noted that white funerals, for the most part, tend to be short and restrained. Black Baptist services, on the other hand, historically have tended to be longer, elaborate, more spontaneous and a time to "get it said." That's what was going on in Atlanta.

How could a civil rights icon such as Coretta Scott King, a child of the Baptist Church, whose husband was shot dead, whose home was bombed, and whose own government attempted to smear her husband and break up her marriage, not have a home-going service that didn't bring out its share of freely and honestly expressed emotions?

These remarks were denounced as "political":

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/10/AR2006021001700.html

[Little Star]

1. That was an excellent read. Thanks for posting. n/t