President announces scholarship in honor of civil rights leader

WASHINGTON, D.C. - President Bush honored Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday by announcing the creation of new federal scholarships encouraging young people to study education and public policy. <br> <br> Bush, who has said ``education is the great civil rights issue of our time,&#39;&#39; used the King holiday to renew his emphasis on improving schools. The administration also said it will propose increasing federal funding for colleges and universities that traditionally attract black and Hispanic students by $12 million over current levels. <br> <br> The president nodded along as a quartet of students from Texas Southern University recited King&#39;s ``I Have a Dream&#39;&#39; speech. King&#39;s widow, his son, Martin Luther King III, and daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, presented Bush with a portrait of the slain civil rights leader. <br> <br> ``I can&#39;t wait to hang it,&#39;&#39; Bush said. <br> <br> Assassinated in 1968 at age 39, King would have turned 73 last Tuesday. <br> <br> The King scholarships will go to ``promising students all across America,&#39;&#39; Bush said in the East Room to a crowd of some 200 administration officials, foreign ambassadors and civil rights leaders. <br> <br> Starting this summer, the Martin Luther King Jr. Scholars Program will take as many as 10 outstanding undergraduate and graduate students and make them paid interns in the office of the secretary at the Education Department, White House officials said. <br> <br> They will take part in seminars and programs on policy development, and work with a mentor, said White House spokesman Taylor Gross. <br> <br> Bush noted that President Lyndon B. Johnson had signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 in the same White House room, and had handed the pen over to King. The act banned segregation in public accommodations and paved the way for court action to end bias in hiring and promotions. <br> <br> ``The law marked a true turning point in the life of our country,&#39;&#39; Bush said. ``There&#39;s no doubting that the law came as it did, when it did, because of him.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> The president cited the indignities and injuries King sustained along the way. He was beaten, stabbed, jailed, and his home was bombed. <br> <br> ``At a certain point even a strong man might have yielded. Dr. King never did, and he never gave up on his country,&#39;&#39; Bush said. ``Some figures in history, renowned in their day, grow smaller with the passing of time. The man from Atlanta, Georgia, only grows larger with the years.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Bush&#39;s relationship with some civil rights groups have been bumpy during his first year in office. <br> <br> NAACP leaders have complained about Bush not meeting with them, and it did not appear they were present Monday night. The White House declined to release a list of audience members, but said representatives of the National Council of Negro Women and the Leadership Council on Civil Rights were in the East Room. The NAACP&#39;s Baltimore offices were closed on Monday and calls there were not returned.

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