MLK Memorial Gets $3 Million Donation
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation is giving $3 million to help build the long-delayed memorial to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall.
With fundraising and help from lenders and banks, the memorial has enough money to begin construction this spring, its previous target, said Harry Johnson, president of the King memorial foundation overseeing the project.
Read more: The Associated Press
There are so many problems with the National Memorial to Dr King, it's hard to know where to start. But it is easy to know who to blame. The Board of Directors of the MLK Memorial Foundation is allowing all of the wrongs to happen, no matter who is the face presented to the media.
We need this memorial, but not at the cost of their disregard for the truth and equal, fair opportunity for all Americans- instead of just for the few they have hand- picked.
The MLK Memorial is NOT funded completely by private monies. Congress changed the law to make it legal for the US Government to appropriate $10 Million in June 2005, with Congressional Match achieved in Feb 2006. Lei was quietly contracted in Aug 2006, but not announced until Feb 2007. Seems suspect that the MLK Memorial Foundation kept Lei in the closet for the Nov 2006 formal groundbreaking ceremonies, with all the big fanfare and press coverage.
Why were they hiding him if they had done nothing wrong? If all was above board, it would be very appropriate to have such an important project participant at the ceremony. But no one even mentioned him.
Only GM gave slightly more money to this project than the federal government. But there is hardly a mention about the Federal money in all the MLK Memorial Foundation hype. The same for numerous local and state governments that gave public money- from $1000 to $500,000.00 each. Pretty ungrateful behavior, especially when that federal money literally kept this project from going belly up.
When MLK Foundation CEO Johnson gladly accepted that desperately needed $10 Million Federal months before outsourcing the main statue of Dr. King, that meant EVERY part of the project- 100%, not just 85%(in Feb 08) or 51% (in Nov 07) as Johnson has offered- must then be open for bid to US parties. Three viable bids must be solicited for every contract paid for with such funds. If not, the law has been broken. This must be investigated, just like any other illegally awarded federally funded contract. The MLK Memorial Foundation Board of Directors and CEO Johnson are deliberately stealing this statue from US parties and taxpayers.
To only allow US companies and artists partial access is like saying we can sit wherever we want, as long as it is in the back of the bus. They're going to put that dividing sign where they want and we have no right to be equal. That was wrong in Dr. King's day and it is still wrong now.
Then there's this from the MLK Memorial website-
"Georgia Congressmen John Lewis and Hank Johnson joined Harry E. Johnson, President and CEO of the Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc., on a tour of Stone Mountain, GA on Sunday, July 22. They surveyed granite quarries to explore potential stone to be used for the four-acre King memorial which will be situated on the National Mall. Stone Mountain is the site symbolically referenced by Dr. King in his historic “I Have a Dream” speech....
...Curtis Branscome, CEO, Stone Mountain Memorial Association; Kelly Jordan, Chairman, Arabia Mountain Heritage Area Alliance; and Angela Fortson, Owner Southeastern Granite Company, accompanied Congressman Lewis and Mr. Johnson.”
This visit was purposely meant to mislead the contributors and American public since all granite quarrying and manufacturing operations in the Stone Mountain Region ceased in the 1970's, reverting to the Elberton, GA Region Manufacturers by agreement. There are currently no active quarries at Stone Mountain, but there are at least 45 active dimension stone quarries in the nearby area including Elbert, Oglethorpe, Madison, Wilkes and Greene Counties. There are also no granite quarries in the USA that operate on Sundays. No viable GA Granite quarry or manufacturer can be found that was contacted or allowed to bid on any portion of this project. As noted above, "Angela Fortson, Owner Southeastern Granite Company" is not known to major GA Granite Industry Contacts and cannot be found via an Internet search to be listed in any manner except within MLK Memorial Foundation Press Releases.
They are purposely working to dupe and cheat the American people. ASK THEM WHY!
CEO Johnson is legally just a flunky of the MLK Memorial Foundation Board of Directors- they are to blame for everything he does wrong. And for those who want to somehow justify these unfair actions, basing a defense upon grounds that these decisions must be acceptable because were made by a mostly African American committee, let's be real. How long would that argument last if someone said everything must be ok because 10 out of 12 people that made some decision were white? It's time to be respectful to Dr. King's vision of true equality. It's time for the corrupt MLK Memorial Foundation leaders to be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.
In this article, Johnson and memorial officials deliberately failed, when asked, to reveal when asked financial status of the MLK Memorial Foundation. As a 501(c)(3) Non Profit, this is against the law. How many times will this pattern of behavior tolerated before American will demand what is right? It's time for 100% of the National Memorial to Dr. King to be produced in America, not just the leftovers. Why is the MLK Memorial Foundation Board of Directors entitled to allow these wrongs to happen?
Go to www. kingisours. com sign our petition. Join us. Demand the truth, like the CA NAACP and 1000 US Granite Companies have. Call your congressional reps. This is our only chance to do it right and true before it is too late.
King Is Ours.
Clint Button
www. kingisours. com
Posted by: Clint Button, King Is Ours | February 03, 2008 at 09:24 PM