MLK Memorial Opens On Mall

intervention that this dedication would be held on Aug,  28, 48 years after Dr. King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech and three years after Barack Obama received the democratic nomination to become our president.  It was ordained.”

In an interview with The Washington Informer, Congressman John Lewis (D-Ga.), who marched with Dr. King, said “If anyone had told me 48 years ago when Dr. King delivered his I Have A Dream Speech that I would live to see the day that there would be a monument on the front porch of America, on the American mall to a man of peace, a man of love, a man of nonviolence, I would have said ‘you’re crazy.'”

“I was invited to go up on the scaffolding and rub his head,” Lewis said. “I cried.  It is unreal. It is unbelievable and it is the best likeness of him that I’ve see.”

Martin Luther King, III, the son of the slain civil rights leaders, said he is pleased with the memorial’s design.  “I like the design, particularly the imagery associated with my father’s challenge to ‘hew a stone of hope out of the mountain of despair,'” King said.  “I think the other quotations in the memorial are excellent and very relevant to our times. Love, peace and justice are cornerstones of my father’s teachings and they never go out of style.”

Numerous notables are scheduled to participate in the memorial events including politicians, entertainers and faith leaders.  The Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network (NAN), announced he is leading a major jobs march on Sat., Aug. 27 in Washington, D.C., to “reaffirm our collective journey from the emancipator (Abraham Lincoln) to the liberator (Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.),” according the NAN website.  The mile-long march is scheduled to convene at noon at 17th Street and Constitution Avenue near the Lincoln Memorial and end at the King Memorial.

Host committee organizers also plan to focus the national spotlight on the District’s Statehood movement with a march downtown that will merge with Sharpton’s.  Since April 11, 75 District residents have been arrested in the cause for protesting the District’s lack of full voting representation in Congress.  Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), the District’s sole representative in Congress, cannot vote on any federal legislation.  Residents have been reminded that Dr. King also marched for D.C. voting rights.

Like most cities, Washington, D.C., has its street named for Dr. King in Southeast.  In celebration of the memorial, an extension of Martin Luther King, Jr. Avenue will cross the 11th Street bridge complex, down the freeway to the Maine Avenue exit, and then down Independence Avenue past the new memorial to its western terminus near the Potomac River.

Johnson led a 25-year effort to build the memorial that began with a meeting of five members of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity who proposed building a national memorial to Dr. King in 1984.  The proposal required was approved by Congress and signed by President Clinton in 1996.

The late Coretta Scott King served as the honorary chairperson of the memorial committee, which viewed the project as “an opportunity to break the trend of memorials to war and erect a monument which delivers a message of lifelong peace in our land,” committee member John Carter told a Senate subcommittee that oversees memorials in 1998.

Despite this week’s opening, the Foundation continues to reach for its goal to raise $120 million to cover the costs of the memorial.  With $6 million yet to be raised, Johnson is hopeful that contributions will continue to come in.  “We’ve had a very good fundraising plan for corporations, foundations, individuals, churches and children,  including the efforts of the Kids for King campaign,” Johnson said.  “Anyone who has been touched by Dr. King’s life should help pay for this memorial.”

For more information about the MLK Memorial visit: www.mlkmemorial.org.

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