What the nation is reading about Georgia. - King's death marked with criticism of voter ID bill.

Civil rights activists marked the Monday anniversary of the murder of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. by denouncing a Georgia measure that would require voters to show a picture ID.

At a wreath-laying ceremony at King's Atlanta tomb, preachers and members of King's family criticized the bill approved last week by the Republican-led Legislature as an attempt to suppress minority voting.

"We live in a state where our vote can be suppressed, oppressed and repressed," said Martin Luther King III, one of King's two sons.

The bill, which GOP sponsors say is intended to prevent voter fraud, still must be signed by Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue.

King was killed by a sniper's bullet on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, where he had traveled to support sanitation workers who had gone on strike.

(4-5-05, The Chicago Tribune.)