ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) – On what would’ve been Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s 95th birthday, locals and tourists are managing to get a glimpse inside King’s birth home in Atlanta despite it being closed for renovations. All thanks to a little creativity from the staff of the National Park Service.
Park rangers closed off a portion of Auburn Avenue Monday, allowing them to set up tents on the street featuring photographs and exhibits of what the interior of the home looks like.
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“We’re very blessed to live in the Old Fourth Ward right where Martin Luther King was born,” said Morli Desai, adding that it’s important for her two sons to understand the treasure in their neighborhood. “I’m very excited about it being renovated over the next two years and bringing the boys back and taking a look and trying to envision ourselves in what it would’ve been like.”
The King home almost didn’t survive to see a renovation. In December, a tourist captured video of a woman pouring gasoline on the home’s front porch in what police believe was an attempt to burn it down. Laneisha Shantrice Henderson, a 26-year-old Navy veteran, remains in the Fulton County Jail. She was charged with second-degree arson and interference with government property.
Frank McKnight and his daughter have made it a family tradition to spend Martin Luther King, Jr. Day on Auburn Avenue. Tourists can hop on a 1950s bus parked outside the King birth home.
“I grew up in the Jim Crow era,” said McKnight, who’s in his 70s. “I was born under segregation, and without (King’s) influence and many others before him and after him, I can’t imagine what my life would be like.”
“I feel like he inspires a lot of us to do better, to be positive, keep that same message of taking care of each other,” Joelle, McKnight’s…
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