King Memorial Groundbreaking Held Today

 

King Memorial Groundbreaking Held Today

AP

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• See the Proposed Design of the Memorial

President Bush, appearing at a groundbreaking ceremony Monday for a memorial honoring slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., said the National Mall monument will "preserve his legacy for ages."

Under overcast skies, Bush joined former President Clinton and a host of civil rights figures and members of Congress to celebrate the monument to be built not far from where King gave his "I Have a Dream" speech in August of 1963.

"When Martin Luther King came to Washington in December of 1963," Bush said, "he came to hold this nation to its own standards. ... He stood not far from here ... with thousands gathered around him. His dream spread a message of hope."

"An assassin's bullet could not shatter his dream," Bush said. "As we break ground, we give Martin Luther King his rightful place among the many Americans honored on the National Mall. It 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 memorial, to be built roughly a half-mile from the Lincoln Memorial, where King gave his historic speech, will be the first to honor an African American on the Mall.

Among those present for the ceremony were poet and novelist Maya Angelou, television personality Oprah Winfrey and the Rev. Jesse Jackson and several members of Congress.

Donations for the memorial, which have mostly come from major corporations, hit $65.5 million earlier this month.

Harry Johnson, president of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, said he hopes to have the site completed by the spring of 2008.

The location is flanked by the Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and Franklin D. Roosevelt memorials near the eastern edge of the Potomac River Tidal Basin. From a distance, visitors can see the stairs where King delivered his most famous speech during the March on Washington on Aug. 28, 1963.

The entrance to the memorial will include a central sculpture called "The Mountain of Despair." Its towering split rocks signify the divided America that inspired the nonviolent efforts of King and others to overcome racial and social barriers.

"This project has been over a decade in the making," Bush said, thanking Clinton, who signed the legislation authorizing the monument.

Tommy Hilfiger, Russell Simmons and other celebrities also atttended the event.

 

About the Memorial

Composition and Space

This memorial is not designed to be experienced in a single way with one single message, but rather it is to have a broad accessibility, appealing to all of the senses with diverse, repetitive and overlapping themes. The introduction of an arcing berm into the horizontal arrangement of the site creates an array of spaces suitable for movement, viewing, sitting, meeting, speaking and congregating in large and small groups. The use of water creates different moods, from calm and quiet wellsprings to glistening sheets, to rushing foment. Mists will help cool the environment in the warm summer months and textured stone will recall the movement of falling water in the cold winter months. The varied treatment and texture of water, stone and landscape will create an environment that is inviting and functional in all seasons and from year to year. Like streams flowing into a mighty river, the 24 niches along the upper walkway commemorate the contribution of the many individuals that gave their lives in different ways to the civil rights movement – from Medgar Evers to the four children murdered by a bomb blast at the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham.

In deference to the unfinished nature of the movement, a random number will be left open and incomplete, allowing additional niches to be dedicated at a later point in time. These semicircular nave-like spaces are intended to engage personal contemplation and quiet reflection, and will be directly accessible from the upper walkway. Each space will be hewn from rock, with rough edges on the outside, and smooth stone on the inside ("rough places made plain"). They will be designed to accommodate visitors to the memorial throughout the day and evening and during each season of the year.

The niches create a cadence and rhythm along the arcing path that reinforces the processional experience which will be punctuated by the pattern of light and shadow of the alternating trees. While each niche will share a common theme with water, seating and trees, the intention is that each be unique and distinctive, honoring the individual contribution of each interrupted life.