OBU Urges Blacks to Attend King Memorial

Today is the 41st anniversary of the birth of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, who was assassinated in Memphis in April 1968.

Public schools in New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Kansas City, Berkeley, and New Haven will be closed all day today. Boston schools will remain open except King Middle School in Roxbury, which will close at noon.

National Holiday?

Senator Edward Brooke (R-Mass) has asked Congress to make January 15 a national holiday. Mayor Kevin White has declared January 15 Human Rights Day in Boston.

A brief memorial service for King will be held at 2 p.m. today in Union Methodist Church, 485 Columbus Ave., Roxbury. In a statement issued yesterday, the Organization for Black Unity urged allblacks at the University to attend this service.

"This service is being held in the black community and OBU feels that any demoralization of those who have died in the struggle for the liberation of Africa and African people should be done by our own people and within the context of our own communities," the statement said.