WASHINGTON — Congress marked the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death Thursday with tributes by House and Senate leaders and words of remembrance by lawmakers who once worked alongside the civil rights leader.

The ceremonies were held as a pair of polls showed the public with racially divided views about the state of race relations today.

"Because of the leadership of this man, we rose up out of fear and became willing to put our bodies on the line," said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a companion of King in the civil rights struggles of the 1960s.

Also speaking at ceremonies in the Capitol's Statuary Hall were House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House and Senate Republican leaders John Boehner and Mitch McConnell.

Reid noted that after King was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968, his body was not bestowed the honor of lying in the Capitol Rotunda. "Yet because our country dared to embrace his dream, his statue now stands there permanently, just steps from where we are."




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