Tears were shed when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
Tears were shed again 50 years later at a remembrance ceremony at the National Churchill Museum in Fulton.
The five bronze bells in the tower at St. Mary the Virgin, Aldermanbury church tolled 39 times, one for each year of King's life. The bells revived a near-prophecy made by King himself the night before he died.
"I just want to do God's will," King said in his final speech in Memphis, Tennessee. "And he's allowed me to go up on the mountain. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the promised land."
The next evening, King went out on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. At 6:01 p.m., he was struck down by a single bullet.
Members of the Westminster College and Fulton communities joined together Wednesday to remember King's powerful legacy. Robert Childs said he was just 9 years old when King died.
"I recall the news was extended that night to get more coverage," he said. "It had just happened."
Tim Riley, director and curator of the National Churchill Museum, said he learned last week of similar bell ringing ceremonies planned across the nation and the world. At 6:01 p.m. Wednesday, the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, which encompasses the Lorraine Motel, led off the 39 tolls, with other churches and colleges following. Anyone with a bell had been encouraged to participate.
Riley said he received an email from co-worker Olivia Bailey last Thursday asking, "How do we make our bells work?"
"She said, 'Do you know there's a national movement to ring bells 39 times, one time for each year of King's life?'" Riley said. "I said, 'Quite frankly, I don't know how the bells work.'"
They figured it out, and tears fell Wednesday as the bells rang for 61/2 minutes.
"It really was a grassroots movement," Riley said. "I think (King) would have been proud."
College chaplains Jamie Haskins and Kiva Nice-Webb led the ceremony, and students read Langston Hughes poems that King loved.
King's death, Haskins said, was "a great loss to our country and the world."