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How Martin Luther King Jr.'s legacy lives on in King County

caption: A woman walks past a large mural of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the side of a diner, painted by artist James Crespinel in the 1990's and later restored, along Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tuesday, April 3, 2018, in Seattle.
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A woman walks past a large mural of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the side of a diner, painted by artist James Crespinel in the 1990's and later restored, along Martin Luther King Jr. Way, Tuesday, April 3, 2018, in Seattle.
AP Photo/Elaine Thompson

Fifty years ago today, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was murdered on a balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. Decades later, a motion passed in the King County Council to rename the county for King, rather than a slave owner from Alabama.

Former King County Councilmember and King County Executive Ron Sims sponsored the original resolution. But it would take another twenty years, and the encouragement of County Councilmember Larry Gossett, to get the resolution ratified by the state legislature and signed by the governor into law.

Both men joined Bill Radke to discuss Seattle's history of superimposing progressive ideals onto an unaddressed racial history, and how Dr. King's vision can and should still guide us today.

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