In commemoration

From Wyandanch to Westminster Abbey and Memphis, preparations have hit a fever pitch for the 40th anniversary of the death of the civil rights leader, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. who was gunned down April 4, 1968 on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis. The motel is now the National Civil Rights Museum, and preparations there have included the actor Samuel L. Jackson as a volunteer swinging a paintbrush. In London's Westminster Abbey, there will be a service including a gospel choir, jazz and rap. On Long Island, school children in the Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School have written essays.