América del Norte
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Unveiled
- Lunes, 22 de agosto 2011 19:04
WASHINGTON, DC - Después de más de dos décadas de planificación, recaudación de fondos y la construcción, el Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial - una rebanada de cuatro hectáreas del National Mall cuenta con una estatua de granito del Dr. King - ha abierto oficialmente al público .
The memorial will be formally dedicated on Sunday in a ceremony that is expected to draw as many as a few hundred thousand people from around the country. But some of its earliest judges came on Monday, as hundreds of city residents and visitors stood in line for their turn to take a look.
The dedication, which is to include remarks by President Obama, coincides with the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington and Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, delivered at the Lincoln Memorial.
The memorial is the first on the National Mall to honor an African-American, said Harry E. Johnson Sr., the president of the foundation in charge of erecting it, and that made it an emotional occasion for many who came to see it.
In 1996, Congress authorized the memorial’s establishment on the Mall, and Alpha Phi Alpha, an African-American fraternity, set up a foundation to accomplish that. A Chinese sculptor, Lei Yixin, was selected to create the 30-foot sculpture, and an architect, Ed Jackson Jr., designed the layout, which includes a bookstore, a wall with Dr. King’s quotations and nearly 200 cherry trees. The cost was $120 million, and organizers said they are still trying to raise the last $5 million.
The design gave form to a line from Dr. King’s “Dream” speech — “With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope,” said Mr. Jackson. In the memorial, he explained, Dr. King is seen emerging from the stone of hope. The two towering mounds set slightly behind him, forming a sort of passageway to the statue, are mountains of despair.
Fuente: New York Times
