Clinton OKs Site For Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial In Washington

Jet, August 3, 1998

A national monument to slain civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be located between the Washington Monument and the Capitol Building under a measure signed recently by President Clinton.

In 1996, Congress authorized the memorial's creation on federal land in Washington. The congressional resolution Clinton signed okays an Interior Dept. recommendation that the memorial be located on the national Mall between the Washington Monument and the Capitol.

King gave his famous "I Have A Dream" speech on the Mall in 1963.

No federal funds will be used to pay for the memorial. Expenses are to be paid by Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation's oldest and largest Black fraternity, which was King's fraternity.

Vice President Gore, referring to Clinton's action during a speech at the recent NAACP convention in Atlanta, noted the monument to King would be on the same Mall "from which he led and moved our nation."

"It's about time," Gore added.