The campaign to build a memorial on the National Mall in honor of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. received a $1 million boost Monday from a major insurance firm, bringing the effort ever closer to the $100 million goal.
Prudential Financial Chairman Art Ryan announced his firm’s contribution during a news conference at the National Press Club. The memorial campaign so far has collected $78.5 million, including $10 million from General Motors and $5 million from Tommy Hilfiger.
King, Ryan said, “represented a way of hope, a way of inspiration and a way to get through the kind of very, very difficult issues that we were addressing here in the 1960s.”
“Having a memorial between two great presidents, President Lincoln and President Jefferson, is certainly very, very fitting as Dr. King did represent the ideals of freedom and democracy that are so important to our country,” Ryan said.
The memorial is slated for a four-acre plot on the Tidal Basin, immediately northeast of the Lincoln Memorial, southwest of the Jefferson Memorial and adjacent to the FDR Memorial. Congress first adopted a resolution in 1996 to establish the King commemorative, with Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity in charge of the project.
Officials ceremonially broke ground last November, though a contractor won’t be chosen for another month, said Harry Johnson Sr., president and chief executive officer of the memorial foundation. The design features a crescent-shaped stone wall inscribed with excerpts from King’s speeches and the “Stone of Hope,” a 30-foot likeness of the legendary Baptist preacher.
The project is scheduled to be completed in 2008.
“He inspired millions of Americans across this nation and human beings around the world to believe that we could create a beloved community based on simple justice that values the dignity and the worth of every human being,” U.S. Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., who sits on the memorial’s congressional committee, said in a statement.
