Mall Site Selected for King

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Jan 3, 2000 | by John Elvin

A four-acre site on The Mall, halfway between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument and in close proximity to the memorials to Thomas Jefferson and Franklin D. Roosevelt, has been set aside as a site to commemorate the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

That decision by the National Capital Planning Commission apparently concludes a disagreement among federal agencies on where, exactly, to locate the memorial. Congress previously had approved the site donation in general at the request of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, of which King was a member.

The design of the memorial will be subject of an international competition. The only stipulation is that it not exceed 20 feet in height. A foundation created to fund the project has until 2003 to raise the tens of millions of dollars in private donations to finance the memorial.