Dr. Martin Luther King's Message Lives on in Memorial

By Deborah M.S. Brown
Washington File Staff Writer

(Civil rights leader to be honored on the Washington Mall)

Washington -- On January 15, Americans will once again observe the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with a national holiday dedicated to his memory and life's work of promoting civil rights for all people. This year the holiday falls on his actual birthday.

King will become the first African American and the second non-president, to have a memorial dedicated to his memory and achievements on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Last December, a bronze marker was placed on the site, which will be constructed on four acres of land near the Tidal Basin, within the sightline of the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials.

The memorial sponsor, the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, of which King was a member, selected the design that features the civil rights leader emerging from an unpolished boulder within a landscape of large stones, flowing water and cherry trees.

Senator John Warner (R-VA), one of four members of Congress who introduced the legislation to establish the memorial, spoke at the ceremony, reminding the audience of King's legacy. "I was a bystander at the Lincoln Memorial and not a marcher that day," he said, referring to King's "I Have A Dream" speech in 1963 during the civil rights march on Washington. "I don't remember the speech so much for the words," Warner said, "but by the way it moved people. It was a moment in history."

Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) also spoke, adding that the memorial will serve as the signpost along the road to equality and racial harmony, and as "a reminder that the goals toward which he strove must be attained in order for America to Remain strong and true to its governing principles."

During his lifetime, King's leadership for civil rights was recognized around the world. Accepting the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964, he said "This award, which I receive on behalf of the [civil rights] movement, is profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and racial questions of our time -- the need for man to overcome oppression without resorting to violence and oppression."

A year before his death in 1968, King reiterated the struggle against oppression of all peoples in his book "Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community." He talked of a "world house," of "black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Moslem and Hindu -- a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace."

Since that time, King has been recognized again and again for his work to bring together all mankind in a peaceful coexistence. At a White House ceremony commemorating Human Rights Day last year, President Bill Clinton quoted King's observation that "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." The president added that "we have both the moral imperative and a practical incentive to do even more to recognize the rights and dignity of every person, everywhere."