WASHINGTON -- After more than two decades of fits and starts and controversy, organizers of a memorial in Washington honoring Martin Luther King Jr. are finally about to realize their dream.
In a ceremony along the cherry tree-lined banks of Washington's Tidal Basin, Interior Department Secretary Ken Salazar on Thursday officially signed a federal construction permit green-lighting the project.
The move clears the way for construction to begin in about two weeks on the 4-acre, $120 million memorial.
"Where so many other great American heroes are honored, it is time to honor Martin Luther King Jr. right here at the nation's front door," Salazar said.
Anchored by a 28-foot-high statue of King, the memorial will be adjacent to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and in a line with the Jefferson Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial, where King gave his history-changing "I Have a Dream" speech in August 1963.
Among those in attendance Thursday was Atlanta resident Christine King Farris, King's 82-year-old sister and the only living sibling of the late civil rights icon.
"I am overwhelmed, I am overjoyed," Farris said. "I never would have envisioned that I would see a day like this."
She said the person who would probably protest the memorial the most would be her late brother.
"He wanted no honor for himself," Farris said. "I think he would have said, ‘No, don't do this for me.' But we have to do it, because generations yet unborn need to know about Martin Luther King Jr."
Also in attendance from Atlanta was Skip Mason, president of the Alpha Phi Alpha, King's fraternity. It was four Washington-area members of the fraternity who first conceived the idea for the memorial more than 20 years ago.
Since then, organizers have struggled with fund-raising and government approvals for the project.
In April, the foundation disclosed that members of King's family charged the nonprofit $800,000 to use his image and his words on the memorial. The fact that the foundation hired a Chinese sculptor to carve the likeness of the American icon also raised some eyebrows.
And still, the memorial faces hurdles.
Harry Johnson, president and CEO of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project, said the group is about $14 million short on construction funding.
So far, the foundation has raised about $106 million of the $120 million it needs to finish the project. The money it already has, coupled with letters of credit from several major donors, will nonetheless allow construction to proceed now that the project is permitted, Johnson said.
Construction is expected to take about two years.
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