Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial

:"This article is about a planned memorial. It likely contains information of a speculative nature, and information will likely change as the structure nears completion."Infobox protected_area | name = Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial (proposed)
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governing_body = U.S. Dept. of Interior The Martin Luther King Jr., National Memorial is a planned memorial, spearheaded by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, to be constructed in Washington, D.C. as a permanent testament to American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. The memorial will have three underlying themes: justice, democracy and hope — highlighted by the use of water, stone and trees respectively throughout the memorial.

King will be the first black man honored with his own memorial in the National Mall area and the third non-president to be commemorated in such a way. The King Memorial will be administered by the National Park Service.

The ceremonial groundbreaking for the memorial occurred on November 13, 2006, in West Potomac Park.

Location and structure

The King Memorial will be located on a four-acre site on the National Mall that borders the Tidal Basin. It will be adjacent to the Roosevelt Memorial and will create a visual "line of leadership" from the Lincoln Memorial, where King gave his famous "I Have a Dream" speech at the March on Washington, to the Jefferson Memorial.

The memorial will contain 24 (semicircular -like shapes) along the upper walkway to 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 in the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in Birmingham.

A number of the niches will be left open and incomplete, allowing additional niches to be dedicated as new events unfold in the civil rights movement.

History

* 1968: Immediately after King's death, officials of King's fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, proposed erecting a permanent memorial to King in Washington D.C. Their efforts gathered strength in 1986, after his birthday became a national holiday.
* 1996: United States Congress authorized the Secretary of the Interior to permit Alpha Phi Alpha to establish a memorial on Department of Interior lands in the District of Columbia, giving the fraternity until November 2003 to raise $100 million and break ground.
* 1998: Congress authorized Alpha Phi Alpha to establish a foundation to manage the memorial's fundraising and design, and approved the building of the memorial on the National Mall.
* 1999: The National Capital Planning Commission and The Commission of Fine Arts approved the site location for the memorial.
* 2000: The design, by ROMA Design Group, a San Francisco-based architecture firm, was selected out of 900 candidates from 52 countries. On December 5, a marble and bronze plaque was laid to dedicate the site where the memorial will be built. [http://www.etalambda.org/sitebody/mlk/index.htm Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Plaque]
* 2001: A full-time fundraising team began the fundraising and promotional campaign for the memorial.
* 2003: The $100 million fundraising deadline was extended by a congressional action.
* 2005: George Lucas donated $1 million to the foundation. Congress authorized the United States Treasury to match 10 million dollars in private contributions.
* 2006: The Walt Disney Company donation of $2.5 million raised the foundation's total to $47 million and triggered the $10 million matching grant from Congress. Donations of $1 million from PepsiCo, State Farm Insurance, FedEx and General Electric increased the fundraising total to $61 million of the needed $100 million.
* 2007: Donations of $1 million from Viacom and The National Association of Realtors (NAR) lifted the Memorial Foundation’s fundraising total to $82 million. [cite web |url=http://www.viacom.com/NEWS/NewsText.aspx?RID=1040319 |title=Viacom Named Title Sponsor of 'The Dream Concert' to Honor Martin Luther King, Jr. and Support National Memorial in Washington, DC |publisher=Viacom |accessdate=2007-10-20] [cite web |url=http://www.realtor.org/about_nar/mlk_memorial.html |title=NAR Donates $1 Million to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial |publisher=National Association of Realtors |accessdate=2007-10-20]
* 2008: To date, more than $87 million has been raised for the memorial which is scheduled to open in 2009. [ [http://www.investors.com/breakingnews.asp?journalid=66337428 Delta Air Lines: The Dream Lives On: Delta's Force for Global Good Leads Fundraising Campaign] (Retrieved January 21, 2008]

Controversy

Delays

In 2001, the foundation's efforts to build the memorial were stalled because the civil rights leader's family wanted the foundation to pay licensing fees to use his name and likeness in marketing campaigns. The memorial foundation, beset by delays and a languid pace of donations has stated, "the last thing it needs is to pay an onerous fee to the King family. Joseph Lowery, past president of the King-founded Southern Christian Leadership Conference stated in the "The Washington Post", "If nobody's going to make money off of it, why should anyone get a fee?" [cite news |first=Darryl |last=Fears |date=2002-04-08 |url=http://www.jessejacksonjr.org/query/creadpr.cgi?id=%22005227%22 |title=Entrepreneurship of Profiteering? Critics Say King's Family Is Dishonoring His Legacy |publisher=jessejacksonjr.org |accessdate=2007-10-20] The family pledged that any money derived would go back to the King Center's charitable efforts. Eventually an agreement was reached between the foundation and the King Family, and no fee was paid.

culptor and stone choice

It was announced in January 2007 that Lei Yixin, an artist from the People's Republic of China, would sculpt the centerpiece of the memorial including the statue of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. [cite web
url=http://www.mlkmemorial.org/site/apps/nl/content2.asp?c=hkIUL9MVJxE&b=1601411&ct=3573181
title=Chinese master sculptor to produce MLK memorial carving
publisher=CNN
date=2007-02-15] and the "Stone of Hope". The commission was criticised by human rights activist Harry Wu on the grounds that Lei had sculpted Mao Zedong. It also stirred accusations that it was based on financial considerations, that the Chinese Government would make a $25 million donation to help meet the projected shortfall. The president of the foundation, Harry E. Johnson, who first met Lei in a sculpting workshop in Saint Paul, Minnesota, states that the final selection was done by a mostly African American design team and was based solely on artistic ability. [cite web
title=A King Statue 'Made in China'?
publisher=The Washington Post
url=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/14/AR2007081401691.html
date=2007-08-14
first=Ariana Eunjung
last=Cha
work=Arts & Living]

Gilbert Young, a renowned African American artist for a work of art entitled "He Ain't Heavy", led a protest against the decision to hire Lei by launching the website "King Is Ours".cite web |last=Young |first=Gilbert |coauthors=Lea Winfrey Young |url=http://www.kingisours.com/ |title=King is Ours |publisher=The He Ain't Heavy Foundation |accessdate=2007-10-20] Human rights activist and arts advocate Ann Lau and American stone carver Clint Button joined Young and national talk show host Joe Madison in advancing the protest when the use of Chinese granite was discovered. [cite web |url=http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=YTMzNWM3NjdiNjU2MTU2NDI0N2ZiMzllYTRiMTc2MmY=
title=Dissing MLK |last=Lau |first=Ann |date=2007-09-18 |publisher=National Review |accessdate=2007-10-20] Lau has stated "The People's Republic of China has the worst human and civil rights records in the world, and "the granite used for the statue probably will be mined by workers laboring in unsafe and unfair conditions, the human rights activist said." [2007-08-24 International Herald Tribune, "Martin Luther King, Jr. monument planners criticized for selecting Chinese sculptor for job"] . In an interview for The Herald of Vermont, Button said the fact that $10 million in federal monies has been authorized for the King project should mean that it must put it out for open bid. The U.S. industry, he said, never had a chance to bid on the piece even though $10 million in federal funds were allocated to the monument, no American companies were allowed to bid on the project. [2007-11-15, The Randolph Herald, "Button: Event raised profile of MLK project"] . The memorial's design team visited China in October 2006 to inspect potential granite to be used. [cite web
url=http://www.mlkmemorial.org/site/c.hkIUL9MVJxE/b.1190613/k.5EE9/History_of_the_Memorial.htm
title=History of the Memorial
publisher=Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr.National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc |accessdate=2007-10-20]

The King Is Ours petition demands that an African American artist and American granite be used for the national monument to honor the life and work of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. "Dr. King was for fairness and justice, especially for black people." Gilbert Young stated on CNN. "There is not ONE national memorial, not ONE monument to a leader or historical event in China, Russia, France, Italy, India, Germany—go ahead and name them all—that has the name of an African American artist engraved in its base. It’s probably not that they don’t like us or appreciate our abilities. It’s that a commission of such importance is a legacy for a country and its countrymen. Why should the King Monument be any different?"

Wide national and international coverage of the controversy resulted in numerous interviews on CNN and on national radio, including the Joe Madison show [http://www.theblackeagle.com] , broadcast from Washington D.C. and on XM Radio 69. Reports were also broadcast on internet radio and on the BBC. Articles on the King Is Ours protest have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Black Enterprise, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The New York Times, and Der Spiegel. After a press conference in Barre, Vermont that included members of King Is Ours as well as John Costaldo, executive director of the Barre Granite Association, master stone carvers, members of the granite and steelworkers unions, and the Mayor of Barre, Tom Lauzon, The Times Argus newspaper ran the headline "Press conference on Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial draws enthusiastic crowd". [2007-11-08, Times Argus] . Granite workers claimed "King Is Ours" in articles in Burlington, Vermont papers [2007-11-09, Burlington Free Press] ,and on October 29, 2007, the California NAACP passed a Resolution at their State Conference supporting the King Is Ours movement. Headlines read, "State NAACP Joins Protest of Chinese artist chosen for MLK monument." [2007-11-28, San Francisco Chronicle] . Resolution #11 reads, in part: "Therefore be it resolved, the California State Conference of the NAACP demands that the decision to use Lei Yixin, from the People’s Republic of China, an artist renowned for glorifying Mao Zedong be overturned; and denounces the decision to use granite quarried using slave labor, and demands that stone for the monument to Dr. King be quarried and carved in America." [2007-10-29, California State NAACP Resolution #11] .

In May 2008, the United States Commission of Fine Arts, which has final approval on all elements of the memorial, raised concerns about "the colossal scale and Social Realist style of the proposed sculpture" noting that it "recalls a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries." The letter, and the ensuing publicity, brought the controversial use of Chinese slave labor in marble and a Chinese sculptor to the attention of the greater public. [cite web
url=http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/18/weekinreview/18dewan.html
title="Larger Than Life, More to Fight Over"
author=Shaila Dewan
publisher=New York Times,New York Times, Inc |accessdate=2008-05-18]

References

External links

* [http://www.mlkmemorial.org/site/c.hkIUL9MVJxE/b.1286621/k.BD3C/Home.htm Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial website]
* [http://www.mlkmemorial.org/site/c.hkIUL9MVJxE/b.1234953/k.964D/Current_Events.htm National Memorial Current Events]
* [http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-555088087193585578 Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Virtual Tour]
* [http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=104_cong_public_laws&docid=f:publ333.104 Public Law 104-333] Congressional authorization for national memorial to Martin Luther King, Jr.
* [http://www.kingisours.com/ King Is Ours protest challenging use of Chinese slave labor and choice of artist]