The addition of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial to the National Park System brings the total number of units in the system to 395.
While there was a "soft opening" of the memorial earlier this month, the National Park Service officially welcomed the memorial into its fold on Sunday, August 28, which marked the 48th anniversary of Dr. King's "I Have A Dream Speech" that was delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
However, a formal dedication ceremony was postponed due to Hurricane Irene, and Park Service officials are working to reschedule that event.
“Welcoming this memorial to the National Mall honors a heroic man and a critical chapter in our nation’s march toward a more perfect union,” said Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar. “Martin Luther King, Jr., mobilized the power of faith and morality to break the chains of oppression that held our nation back. I commend the MLK Foundation and Harry Johnson for their tireless work in making this memorial a reality, so that we may always be reminded of the work that is yet to be done to achieve Dr. King's dream and a more perfect union.”
“Forty-eight years ago, Dr. King took to the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and challenged our nation to fulfill his dream of equality for all Americans,” said the National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “On the anniversary of that speech, we are proud to add the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial to National Park System as a lasting tribute to this American hero. We look forward to working with the MLK Foundation to reschedule the formal dedication and hope that many of the tens of thousands of people who had planned to attend will be able to participate.”
In 1996, Congress authorized Dr. King’s fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, to establish a memorial to the civil rights leader in Washington, DC. The group formed the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation and held a competition for the design. A site along the Tidal Basin of the National Mall was chosen for the memorial.
After 15 years of effort, a granite likeness of Dr. King emerges from the memorial’s Stone of Hope and stands resolutely between iconic monuments to Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.
“From World War II to Vietnam Veterans, from Lincoln to Jefferson and now to King, the memorials and monuments along the National Mall are where millions of visitors every year learn about our history,” said Bob Vogel, superintendent of the National Mall and Memorial Parks. “The National Park Service is honored to serve as the keeper of America’s story, and with this new memorial, to have this incredible venue from which to share the courage of one man and the struggle for civil rights that he led.”
The memorial to Dr. King is part of the National Mall and Memorial Parks and is open to the public. National Park Service rangers provide programs for visitors and answer questions. For more information and photographs, please see http://www.nps.gov/mlkm
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The eloquence of this memorial is not in the stone rendition of the man but rather in the inscribed words within the marble. Like very few other individuals, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was able to weed out the hate in a Promised Land infested by weeds. The purpose of these kinds of memorials is to help ordinary visitors to spark their own inner connections with the one and only inner rhetoric of Nature, that he must have felt, when he related his “Dream” for a divided nation. A few years ago, I was so impressed by this, that I created my own dream: I have a dream, that all of the world’s children would each pull out a symbolic weed of hate, to rid ourselves of the remaining weed seeds of hate, that have inhibited our progress from completed Dr. King’s great vision. Just think of it…billions and billions of young hands actively participating in fullfilling his great dream. Sound impossible? Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel issued a Weed Out Hate Proclamation last Sunday; Iowa Governor Terry Brandstad and Illinois Governor Pat Quinn did the same. There is no force strong enough to restrict the one and only inner ecology of the spirit once people connect with it. Let’s tap our roots, weed out hate, and get connected!