King to be viewed at Georgia's Capitol

ATLANTA -- The body of Coretta Scott King will be viewed in the rotunda of the Georgia Capitol at the governor's invitation, her family announced yesterday.

The viewing was a measure of how far the South has come since the civil rights era.

The King family announced funeral plans for the widow of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The arrangements include a viewing at the Capitol tomorrow; another viewing on Monday at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, King's longtime pulpit; and a funeral in suburban Atlanta on Tuesday. The funeral will be at the 10,000-seat New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, where the Kings' youngest child, Bernice, is a minister.

Mrs. King, 78, died Tuesday at a clinic in Mexico; she had sought treatment for ovarian cancer.

Governor Sonny Perdue's offer of a viewing at the Capitol was in contrast to what happened after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968: Governor Lester Maddox, a fiery segregationist, refused to close the Capitol for the funeral and expressed anger over the flying of state flags at half-staff.

The last public viewing in the Capitol rotunda was in 2005, for former Governor S. Ernest Vandiver, a segregationist.