Biden honors MLK in sermon ahead of Monday holiday

Biden honors MLK during service at Atlanta church.
(Image credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

President Biden on Sunday paid tribute to Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in a service at the historic Atlanta church the slain civil rights leader once led.

Speaking ahead of Monday's national holiday honoring King, Biden called on Americans to follow the minister's example to help "redeem the soul" of a nation plagued by diminishing faith in its institutions. "The battle for the soul of this nation is perennial. ... It's a constant struggle between hope and fear, kindness and cruelty, justice and injustice, against those who traffic in racism, extremism, and insurrection," Biden said at Ebenezer Baptist Church. The president was invited to speak by Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock (D), who has been senior pastor at the church since 2005.

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The president's remarks arrived on what would have been King's 94th birthday, CNN reports. A video of Biden overseeing the creation of the holiday in 1983 went viral ahead of the Sunday sermon, per The Independent.

On Monday, the president will also deliver the keynote address at the National Action Network's annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Breakfast in D.C. The event will run from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.

Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.