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ATLANTA (AP) — The king and queen of the Netherlands began a four-day tour of the U.S. on Monday in Atlanta, where they paid tribute to the late Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and learned about the history of the church where he served as pastor.
At the King Center, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr..’s daughter, Bernice King, greeted the king and queen and walked with them to a marble crypt containing the remains of her father and mother, Coretta Scott King, where the couple lay a wreath. Civil rights leader and former Atlanta Mayor Andrew Young also attended the event.
The visit — and its focus on Black cultural sites — comes less than a year after the king apologized for his country’s role in slavery and asked for forgiveness during a historic and emotional speech in Amsterdam.
The couple later met with Black students at Ebenezer Baptist Church, where they learned about the church's role in the civil rights movement and the fight for racial justice. On Tuesday, they are scheduled to visit Savannah State University, the oldest public historically Black college or university in Georgia.
The trip also has an economic motive. In 2023, total trade between Georgia and the Netherlands was $2.9 billion, according to the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
The king and queen met earlier Monday with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp at the state Capitol, where they and a delegation of Dutch business leaders planned to discuss economic cooperation.
On Tuesday, they plan to visit the Port of Savannah. The trip concludes with a visit to New York on Wednesday and Thursday.