The cultural gala, held at the district of El Vedado, featured performances by the music bands Catarsis and Voces negras, while students of the San Alejandro Academy of Arts drew an image of the African American civil rights leader.

King, said Rev. Suarez, realized that it takes a radical change in thinking to start a freedom project, so he devoted his efforts to eradicate any reminiscence of slavery and subjugation from the minds of African Americans.

The Cuban Reverend also praised the legitimate attitude of Martin Luther King Jr. towards the war in Viet Nam, which he believed was "but a symptom of a far deeper malady within the American spirit" led by a government he called "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today."

At 6:01 p.m. on April 4, 1968, King was shot in the head when he was standing on the Lorraine Motel's 2nd floor balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. At 7:05 that evening, King was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's Hospital at 7:05 p.m. The assassination led to a nationwide wave of riots in more than 100 cities.

(www.cubanews.ain.cu)