Preachers, politicians urge Americans to continue pursuit of Martin Luther King's dream.

(From AP Worldstream)

Byline: ERRIN HAINES

With the widow of Martin Luther King Jr. absent for the first time in nearly four decades, preachers and politicians urged people to continue the slain leader's lifelong pursuit of civil rights and nonviolence.

On the holiday marking King's birth, some speakers used the pulpit of Atlanta's Ebenezer Baptist Church to criticize the Iraq war, saying on Monday that money being used by the military overseas could be better spent domestically on projects such as education, especially for blacks.

Coretta Scott King, recovering from a stroke and heart attack that partially paralyzed her, stayed home and watched the ceremonies on television. It was the first time in 38 years she has missed the service at the church where King preached from 1960 until his death in 1968. She received a standing ovation Saturday night when she appeared on stage with her children at an awards dinner, her first public appearance since last year's King holiday.

Elsewhere around the nation, President Bush took in a rare public showing of the original Emancipation Proclamation; hundreds of people marched in New Orleans, Little Rock, Arkansas, and Columbia, South Carolina, and volunteers worked on projects to help others in Philadelphia.

King was "a brother, a friend, a colleague, a prophet, my hero, and just a simple human being filled with love, peace and compassion for all humankind," Rep. John Lewis said at a holiday breakfast in Minneapolis.