WASHINGTON (AP) — Barack Obama once contemplated
what it would be like to take his two daughters to the National Mall to see a
monument to Martin Luther King Jr.
"I know that one of my daughters will ask,
perhaps my youngest, will ask, "Daddy, why is this monument here? What did
this man do?" Obama, then a senator representing Illinois, said during a
2006 groundbreaking ceremony for the memorial to the civil rights pioneer.
Five years have passed since Obama reflected on
those questions. The young senator is now president, and the King memorial is
complete, having opened to the public in August. And Obama will get his chance
to take daughters Malia and Sasha to the monument Sunday for the dedication
ceremony, during which the country's first black president will be a featured
speaker.
The dedication was originally scheduled for late
August but was postponed after Hurricane Irene swept through the Washington
region, dumping rain on the nation's capital and disrupting travel plans for
many of those who planned to attend the event.
On Sunday, Obama will speak in front of a 30-foot
sculpture of King, arms crossed, looking out into the horizon. The civil rights
leader appears to emerge from a stone extracted from a mountain. The design was
inspired by a line from the famous 1963 "Dream" speech delivered
during the March on Washington in 1963: "Out of the mountain of despair, a
stone of hope."
Situated between the Lincoln and Jefferson
memorials, King's is the first monument on the National Mall honoring a black
leader.
Obama was just 6 years old when King was
assassinated in Memphis, Tenn. But he has often talked about the influence
King's life, particularly his commitment to public service, has had on him.
In a 2009 newspaper editorial written just days
before his inauguration, Obama wrote that King "lived his life as a servant
to others," and urged Americans to follow his example and find ways to
enrich people's lives in their communities and across the country.
Valerie Jarrett, a White House senior adviser and
longtime friend of the president, said she expects the president's remarks
"to come straight from the heart."
King's "willingness to sacrifice himself for
our country, to fight for a dream he believed in, like justice and equality,
really gave a foundation for President Obama becoming the president,"
Jarrett said.
Obama is also looking forward to the opportunity to
speak as a parent and to remind his daughters and other young people about the
work that went into securing the liberties they may now take for granted,
Jarrett said.
When Obama imagined years ago taking his daughters
to see the King monument, he couldn't have known he would do so as president.
But he said when the monument was complete, he would tell his daughters
"that this man gave his life serving others. I will tell them that this
man tried to love somebody. I will tell them that because he did these things,
they live today with the freedom God intended, their citizenship unquestioned,
their dreams unbounded."
Copyright
2011 The Associated Press.
(AP
Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
