Atlanta ? Sitting in the same spot where her husband preached equality more than four decades ago, Coretta Scott King said Saturday that Martin Luther King Jr.’s message is as relevant today as it was in the 1960s.

“It’s as if he were writing for this period,” King said in a rare public appearance on what would have been her husband’s 76th birthday. “Nonviolence would work today, it would work 2,000 years from now, it would work 5,000 years from now.”

King reminisced about her life with — and without — the slain civil rights leader in an appearance at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

Hundreds of people filled the pews and stood in the aisles to hear her speak in the same church where Martin Luther King Jr. was preacher from 1960 until his death in 1968 at age 39.

“I have many, many memories of being in this sanctuary,” King said in a presentation in the form of an interview with PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley.

King’s appearance was part of the 12th annual Hands on Atlanta Martin Luther King Jr. Service Summit. Events continue through Monday.

King said her husband’s “moral voice” was missing from American society but she remained committed to spreading his teachings — a task she said she embraced during her marriage.

Coretta Scott King marked what would've been her husband's 76th birthday by speaking at an Atlanta church. PBS talk show host Tavis Smiley, right, interviewed Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow Saturday at the church where King was preacher from 1960 until he was killed in 1968.

“As we were thrust into the cause, it was my cause, too,” she said. “I married the man and the cause. I realized I, too, could be killed.”

King said she helped her husband through times of disappointment when he grew weary of his fight for equality, adding that he was frequently depressed when people would riot.