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ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 President Joe Biden made a historical pilgrimage Sunday to \u201cAmerica\u2019s freedom church\u201d to mark Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s birthday, saying democracy was at a perilous moment and that the civil rights leader\u2019s life and legacy \u201cshow us the way and we should pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n
The president is scheduled to speak at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day event at 12 p.m. ET. Watch the event in the player above.<\/strong><\/p>\n As the first sitting president to deliver a Sunday morning sermon at King\u2019s Ebenezer Baptist Church, Biden cited the telling question that King himself once asked of the nation.<\/p>\n \u201cHe said, \u2018Where do we go from here?\u2019\u201d Biden said from the pulpit. \u201dWell, my message to this nation on this day is we go forward, we go together, when we choose democracy over autocracy, a beloved community over chaos, when we choose believers and the dreams, to be doers, to be unafraid, always keeping the faith.\u201d<\/p>\n In his remarks, the president also said that for all the progress the United States has made, the country had now reached a critical point in its history. He said democracies can backslide, noting the collapse of the institutional structures of democracy in places such as Brazil.<\/p>\n WATCH:<\/strong> Martin Luther King III reflects on Dr. King\u2019s legacy in divided times<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cProgress is never easy, but it\u2019s always possible and things do get better in our march to a more perfect union,\u201d he said. \u201cBut at this inflection point, we know a lot of work that has to continue on economic justice civil rights, voting rights, protecting our democracy. And I\u2019m remembering our job is to redeem the soul of America.\u201d<\/p>\n This moment, he said, \u201cis the time of choosing. \u2026 Are we a people who will choose democracy over autocracy? Couldn\u2019t ask that question 15 years ago because everybody thought democracy was settled. \u2026 But it\u2019s not.\u201d Americans, he said, \u201d have to choose a community over chaos. \u2026 These are the vital questions of our time and the reason why I\u2019m here as your president. I believe Dr. King\u2019s life and legacy show us the way and we should pay attention.\u201d<\/p>\n King, who was born on Jan. 15, 1929, was killed at age 39. He helped drive passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Voting Rights Act of 1965. Members of King\u2019s family attended the service, including his 95-year-old sister, Christine King Farris.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n ATLANTA (AP) \u2014 President Joe Biden made a historical pilgrimage Sunday to \u201cAmerica\u2019s freedom church\u201d to mark Martin Luther King Jr.\u2019s birthday, saying democracy was at a perilous moment and that the civil rights leader\u2019s life and legacy \u201cshow us the way and we should pay attention.\u201d The president is scheduled to speak at the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42519,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[161],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42518"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42518"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42518\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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