The Tablet
January 19, 2021
Father Alonzo Cox (right), who led the prayer service, said that while African-Americans had not yet reached the promised land of racial justice as King had predicted, “We will get there.” (Photos: Paula Katinas)
BEDFORD-STUYVESANT — Maria Stange has vivid memories of the day Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. She was only eight years old at the time, but April 4, 1968, is burned into her brain.
“It was incredible. People who didn’t even know each other were hugging each other on the street. That’s how emotional everybody felt,” she said.
Stange was one of a small group of people who attended a special prayer service at Our Lady of Victory Church in Bedford-Stuyvesant on Jan. 18, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, to celebrate the civil rights icon’s life and legacy.