Grit
April 7, 1968
Services for King Set Here

Compiled by Lou Hunsinger Jr.

Citizens of all colors and faiths in Williamsport and countywide are invited to take part in a memorial service today and Tuesday for the late Dr. Martin Luther King, who was slain in Memphis, Tennessee Thursday evening.

A service sponsored by the United Churches of Lycoming County will be held today at 4 p.m. at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church.

A second memorial service will be held at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday in the courthouse plaza to coincide with the funeral of the famed civil rights leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner in Atlanta.

At the service today tributes will be given by Rev. Lena Parr, pastor of the Salem Zion Church, and by Dr. Frederick Wertz, president of Lycoming College.

Other ministers taking part will be the Rev. Richard B. Martin, pastor of St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, the Rev. John B. Mostoller, pastor of First Church of Christ Disciples. The Rev. C. Woody, pastor of Ebeneezer Baptist Church and Dr. Wilbur Sheriff, pastor of First Baptist Church.

The choir of Shiloh Baptist Church will sing, “Take My Hand Precious Lord,” which was the song that Dr. King asked to be sung at the rally which had been planned Thursday evening in Memphis. He made the request moments before he was fatally shot as he stood on the balcony of a motel.

P.D. Mitchell, director of the Bethune-Douglass Community Center, who is planning the Tuesday service in cooperation with James M. Hazel, president of the local chapter of the N.A.A.C.P. said, “The service is being given so that the general public of Williamsport and adjacent area may pay tribute to the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”