DENVER—Colorado’s Senate honored Martin Luther King Jr. on his 80th birthday Thursday with an emotional tribute.
Many speakers, including Senate President Peter Groff, paired King’s birthday with the upcoming presidential inauguration of Barack Obama. They spoke about Colorado’s own milestone—the fact that the state is the first in the country with a legislature led by two black lawmakers, Groff and House Speaker Terrance Carroll.
“What a tremendous, unbelievable country that we live in,” said Groff, D-Denver. He will witness Obama’s inauguration in Washington, D.C.
Groff said he was born in 1963 while King was jailed in Birmingham, Ala., for his peaceful defiance of segregation laws. Groff said he would be thinking about the bridge that has been built since that time to the present while watching Obama take the oath of office.
Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, R-Fruita, said Obama would join King and Abraham Lincoln as major figures in American history to mark changes in the nation’s troubled racial history.
Other Republicans stressed the importance of King’s Christian faith in his work. Some read passages from his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail.”
“We are a better country because a man was unafraid to express his faith,” said Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield. One person clapped loudly from the visitors’ gallery above in violation of the rules but stopped after a sergeant motioned at him.
State lawmakers normally discuss King and his legacy on the federal and state holiday commemorating his birthday—the third Monday in January. This year, though, lawmakers will get that day off along with other government workers.
Carroll said he and Groff wanted lawmakers to remember King by participating in acts of service in their communities.
The House plans its King commemoration on Friday.
