Plans are underway in Washington D.C. to erect a memorial in honor of one of the Civil Rights Movement’s most prominent icons.
Plans are underway in Washington D.C. to erect a memorial in honor of one of the Civil Rights Movement’s most prominent icons.
As part of its Martin Luther King Jr. birthday celebration on Jan. 19, the eve of Barack Obama’s presidential inauguration, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. hosted a luncheon at the National Press Club in Washington and got a big boost in its effort to build the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial.
In 1984, the fraternity made a proposal to its leadership to spearhead erection of a King memorial.
Frank Clark, the CEO of ComEd, presented the group with a check for $1 million to be used toward the project.
Clark said the Exelon Foundation, a non-profit philanthropic arm of the utility company’s parent, Exelon Corp., donated the money in the spirit of King’s work.
“The Martin Luther King Foundation stands for everything that both ComEd and Exelon Corp. believe in. And Martin Luther King’s dream that we all talk about is becoming more and more reality for more and more people, though the gap is still huge,” Clark told the Defender after presenting the check.
The gift puts the fraternity, of which King was a member, a step closer to reaching its $132 million fundraising goal. With the Exelon Foundation contribution, the project has $104 million in its coffers, fraternity leaders said at the luncheon.
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