Martin Luther King Jr. belongs among American icons like Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln, national leaders said Monday at the ceremonial groundbreaking for a King memorial.It sounds like it will be beautiful. It’s about time.
…Clinton, who signed legislation in 1996 authorizing the memorial, received a standing ovation from the largely black crowd. He told the crowd of King's commitment to nonviolence and social justice causes such as ending poverty, saying those goals still have not yet been achieved.
"If he were here, he would remind us that the time to do right remains," Clinton said.
The memorial will occupy a four-acre plot on the banks of the Tidal Basin, near the Potomac River. The Jefferson Memorial is across the Tidal Basin, while the Lincoln Memorial lies to the northwest, near the river.
The design is based in part on King's 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech. Before repeating the "Let freedom ring" refrain, King told the crowd, "We will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope."
Visitors will pass through an entryway cut through a massive stone symbolizing the mountain of despair and once inside, will come upon the missing section marking the stone of hope, bearing a carved profile of King. It will be ringed with walls chiseled with King's words that may eventually be the base for a waterfall.
Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., overcome with emotion, center, with Yolanda King, second from left, and Rev. Al Sharpton, left, take part in the ground breaking ceremony for the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington Monday, Nov. 13, 2006. (AP Photo/Lawrence Jackson)
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