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General Purposes

Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc.

www.buildthedream.org

  • Program Exploratory and Special Projects
  • Program Area Special Projects
  • Grant Amount $100,000
  • Grant Period January 1, 2008–December 31, 2010
  • Location Washington, DC, United States
  • Geographic Focus United States

About this grant

This grant will provide support for the construction of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial in Washington, DC. The memorial will be situated on a four-acre site along the Tidal Basin, adjacent to the FDR Memorial and on a diagonal line between the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials. It will be the first memorial on the National Mall honoring an average citizen — not a president or war veteran — and the first on the mall dedicated to a person of color. The design will highlight poignant excerpts of King’s writings and speeches on a 500-foot, crescent-shaped wall that will frame the memorial space. The National Park Service estimates that the memorial and its nearby visitors’ center will receive many of the 22 million people who visit the mall each year. Core construction is scheduled to begin in November 2008 with a plan to dedicate the memorial in 2010.