The
formal dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Sunday was a fitting
tribute to a man recognized as one of history’s greatest leaders.
The
dedication of the first memorial to an African American leader on the National
Mall was done in a ceremony featuring an address by the nation's first African
American president on the site where King delivered his I Have a Dream speech
nearly a half-century ago.
The
dedication comes after some early skirmishes and after organizers postponed the
Aug. 28 dedication when Hurricane Irene threatened the Washington area.
There
were some initial challenges to get over, such as who would sculpt King’s
likeness and who would profit from the $120 million fundraising effort, as the
King family demanded a licensing fee to support the King Center in Atlanta.
Even
after the monument was built, questions were raised over King's likeness, with
some questioning whether it depicted him as too confrontational and others
objecting over a quote they saw as too arrogant on one side of the granite
“Stone of Hope” which reads, “I was a drum major for justice, peace and
righteousness.”
In a
sermon at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church just months before his death in
1968, King preached, 'Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that
I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a
drum major for righteousness. And all the other shallow things will not
matter.”
Fortunately
there are 14 other quotations from King that appear on a 450-foot long memorial
behind his statue that provides fuller context.
But
Sunday, past controversies and challenges did not matter as much as the fact
that the new memorial, set between those of Thomas Jefferson and Abraham
Lincoln, will commemorate King’s quest of equal opportunity for all.
King was
only 26 years old when he was asked to lead the Montgomery bus boycott.
He was
only 34 years old when in 1963 he gave his famous I Have A Dream speech at the
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
On Dec
10, 1964, he won the Nobel Peace Prize.
King led
the movement that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the
Voting Rights Act of 1965.
The civil
rights movement he led had a major effect on American society by engaging in
a mass
struggle that led to the destruction of segregation in the South.
The civil
rights leader also spoke out against the Vietnam War and economic injustice.
At the
time he was assassinated in Memphis in 1968, King was involved in his Poor
People’s Campaign to dramatize the plight of the poor.
The
Associated Press has a story on how President Barack Obama, the nation’s first
African American president, once wondered what it would be like to take his
children Malia and Sasha to see the memorial to King.
“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?’”
Decades
from now other children will see the towering sculpture and ask the same question.
Now this courageous and committed civil rights leader has a monument that will
be a constant reminder for generations to come of the man and the movement.
-Philadelphia Tribune
