By Denise Rolark Barnes
Special to NNPA from The Washington Informer
The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial officially opened this week on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The 28-foot tall granite statue, which stands between the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials, and the nearby F.D. Roosevelt memorial, is the first monument on the National Mall erected in honor of an African American and a nonpresident.
Hundreds of Washington area residents began visiting the memorial on Monday with a preview of the site before the official dedication that will be held on Sun., Aug. 28. The keynote address will be delivered by President Barack Obama who will join civil rights icons at the dedication where more than 250,000 visitors from around the world are expected to attend.
“I am ecstatic,” said Harry Johnson, Sr., president and CEO of the MLK Memorial Foundation and a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, about this week’s opening. “This is a gathering place on the Mall for everyone to see what Dr. King meant to our country and to the world.”
The week-long celebration includes the Dream Gala celebration, a tribute to the civil rights pioneers including the women who were involved in the civil rights movement, along with a concert of civil rights era music and a youth symposium. A host committee of District of Columbia residents, led by D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray, has also planned more than 20 free events across the city for the thousands of visitors to the Nation’s Capitol.
The memorial is located on a four-acre site on West Potomac Park along the Tidal Basin where thousands of visitors come each spring to witness the splendor of the Cherry Blossoms. Situated among the trees is the plaza where a 28-foot boulder stands called the Mountain of Despair through which every visitor will enter. In front is a solitary 30-foot stone called the Stone of Hope, from which Dr. King’s image emerges, gazing over the Tidal Basin towards the Jefferson Memorial.
A 450-foot inscription wall surrounding the stone features 14 quotes from Dr. King engraved into granite that convey four fundamental and recurring themes reflected throughout his life – democracy, justice, hope, and love. Natural elements including water, stone, and trees enhance the beauty of the site.
The address of the memorial is 1964 Independence Avenue, N.W., which is symbolic of the year when Dr. King stood over President Lyndon B. Johnson’s shoulder as he signed the Civil Rights Bill, Johnson said.
“We didn’t plan it that way,” Johnson said, “it just happened. I guess you can call it divine intervention that this dedication would be held on August 28th, 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. Reverend 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 will is scheduled to convene at noon at 17th 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-DC), 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 long 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.