ATLANTA (AP) - Two of the children of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and a pair of institutions instrumental in his life are marking the 44th anniversary of his assassination.

King Center CEO Bernice King and her brother, Martin Luther King III, both announced initiatives Wednesday with the Centers for Disease Control and The Carter Center, focused on youth violence prevention. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King helped create in 1957, and Ebenezer Baptist Church - where he preached from 1960 until his death - laid wreaths at his gravesite in Atlanta.

King, who championed non-violent social change and racial and economic equality, was fatally shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., on April 4, 1968.