King memorial to be dedicated

October 16, 2011 at 12:00a.m.

McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON

President Barack Obama will provide the words and Aretha Franklin the song today for the long-delayed dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial.

Some 50,000 people are expected to converge on Washington’s National Mall to witness the official welcoming of the first monument to honor an African-American to the grounds dotted with stone tributes to presidents and war heroes.

More than 250,000 people had been anticipated for the memorial’s originally scheduled Aug. 28 dedication, which was postponed because of Hurricane Irene.

The nearly two-month delay and the fact that thousands of people already have visited the tranquil 4-acre monument of stone, greenery and trees along the northwest edge of Washington’s Tidal Basin won’t take the luster off today’s festivities, advocates said.

“It’s still fresh,” said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., a civil-rights icon and a King prot g . “I’m excited. And I know many, many people still plan to come from Dr. King’s hometown, from Atlanta, and from the heart of the Deep South, where he was best known.”

Obama will deliver remarks at the dedication along with civil-rights luminaries such as Lewis, Julian Bond, former United Nations Ambassador Andrew Young and the Rev. Jesse Jackson. Singers Franklin and Jennifer Holliday and poet Nikki Giovanni also are scheduled to perform.

The $120 million memorial is part of a burgeoning number of monuments in the nation’s capital that recognize African-American contributions to American life and culture.

On Washington’s busy U Street corridor, the African American Civil War Memorial and Museum recently reopened in a new, 5,000-square-foot home to better tell the story of the 200,000 slaves and freed African-Americans who fought in the conflict.

Back on the National Mall, plans are under way for the National Museum of African American History and Culture, which will be part of the Smithsonian Institution’s 19-museum complex when it opens in 2015.