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Monday, August 22, 2011
The dedication ceremony for it won't happen until this weekend, but the MLK Jr. National Memorial opened today for public viewing.
There will be events occurring in Washington all week celebrating Dr. King's legacy, his leadership of the Civil Rights Movement and the first memorial ever dedicated to a person of color and a non-president.
Those events will build up to the August 28 dedication ceremony in which President Obama, 'the Revs' (Rev. Al Sharpton and Rev. Jesse Jackson, Sr), Dr. King's family members and key people in the Civil Rights Movement will attend and say a few remarks.
August 28 is also the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington and the 'I Have A Dream' speech at the nearby Lincoln Memorial. The new MLK Jr Memorial is on the Tidal Basin next door to the FDR one. It's blended in with the cherry blossom trees and is placed in a direct line of sight between the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial on the opposite side of the Tidal Basin.
Looking forward to seeing it on my next visit to Washington DC.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
We're a month away from American history being made on August 28 when the dedication ceremony occurs at 11 AM EDT for the new Martin Luther King, Jr National Memorial in Washington D.C.
He will be the first African-American man honored with a memorial in the National Mall area and the third non-resident to be commemorated that way.
The road to making the construction of the King Memorial a reality got its start in 1996. A joint Congressional resolution was passed authorizing Dr. King's fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, to establish the memorial honoring the drum major for justice. He pledged while he was a Boston University doctoral student in the 50's and was active in Alpha Phi Alpha. He gave the keynote speech during the organization's 50th anniversary banquet in 1956. . 
When he was assassinated in 1968 Alpha Phi Alpha proposed building a permanent memorial to him in Washington D.C. Those efforts gained momentum after his January 15 birthday became a federal holiday in 1986 and the joint resolution to build it passed Congress a decade later.
The resolution gave Alpha Phi Alpha authorization to establish the memorial, give permission to build it on the National Mall and gave the fraternity until November 2003 to raise the $100 million and break ground on its construction. A foundation was established to manage the memorial's fundraising and design. In December 1999 the United States Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission approved the site location for the memorial as designs for the memorial poured in from 900 candidates in 52 countries. 
On December 4, 2000 a marble and bronze plaque was laid to dedicate the memorial site by Alpha Phi Alpha as the fundraising and promotion campaign commenced with the ceremonial groundbreaking for the project being held in West Potomac Park on November 13, 2006.
After the final approvals from the necessary federal agencies came in October 2009, construction finally commenced on the long awaited King Memorial in November 2009.
The address of the new memorial will be 1964 Independence Ave, SW, Washington, DC 20024. The number is a homage and reference to the milestone Civil Rights Act of 1964 that Dr. King played an integral role in helping to get passed.
The dedication ceremony will be part of a week of events from August 24-28, and I submit there will probably be a large crowd in attendance for the dedication ceremony as we honor Dr. King with a permanent memorial
Looking forward to seeing it the next time I make it to our nation's capitol to lobby or for once if I get to got to Washington D.C to just play tourist.
