 |
| National Council of Negro Women President Dorothy Height, center, is assisted by former Amb. Andrew Young, during the ground breaking ceremony for the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington Monday Nov. 13, 2006. From left, civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., Young, former Labor Secretary Alexis Herman, singer Gladys Knight, Martin Luther King Jr.'s sister Christine King Farris, and Darryl R. Matthews, President of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) |
"We give Martin Luther King his rightful place among the many Americans honored on the National Mall," President Bush told a crowd of about 5,000.
King's memorial, he said, "will unite the men who declared the promise of America and defended the promise of America with the man who redeemed the promise of America."
The King memorial, slated to open in the spring of 2008, will be the first monument for a civilian and Black leader on the large park at Washington's core. It is also probably among the last monuments on the Mall following a 2003 vote in Congress to sharply limit development of the parkland.
The stage in front of the crowd was filled with King's fellow civil rights leaders such as Jesse Jackson, celebrities like Oprah Winfrey, politicians including Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, and three of King's children. A gospel choir sang, and Maya Angelou read poetry. Children read essays they had written about King.
Clinton, who signed legislation in 1996 authorizing the memorial, received a standing ovation from the largely Black crowd. He told the crowd of King's commitment to nonviolence and social justice causes such as ending poverty, saying those goals still have not yet been achieved.
"If he were here, he would remind us that the time to do right remains," Clinton said.
The memorial will occupy a four-acre plot on the banks of the Tidal Basin, near the Potomac River. The Jefferson Memorial is across the Tidal Basin, while the Lincoln Memorial lies to the northwest, near the river.
The design is based in part on King's 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech. Before repeating the "Let freedom ring" refrain, King told the crowd, "We will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope."
Visitors will pass through an entryway cut through a massive stone symbolizing the mountain of despair and once inside, will come upon the missing section marking the stone of hope, bearing a carved profile of King. It will be ringed with walls chiseled with King's words that may eventually be the base for a waterfall.