(Akiit.com) 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.

“We want to push ourselves, and we want to stay on track,” Johnson said. “We’re very pleased that we’re pretty close.”

The gift brings the memorial’s fundraising to $90 million of the $100 million needed to complete the memorial.

Building the 4-acre memorial plaza will take 18 to 20 months. A ceremonial groundbreaking was held in November 2006 with the goal of a 2008 opening. Delays with the design and building permits pushed back the completion date, and Johnson also said fundraising was sluggish at times because of the 2001 terrorist attacks, the South Asia tsunami and Hurricane Katrina.

Starting construction in April or May would keep the schedule on target, but federal agencies that must approve final designs say the schedule still may be overly ambitious.

“As soon as we get the proper clearances … we’re ready to start building,” Johnson said Wednesday. “We are very ambitious with what we’re planning and our timeline.”

The memorial will sit along the edge of the Tidal Basin, between the Jefferson Memorial and Lincoln Memorial, where the civil rights pioneer delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963. It will feature a large stone sculpture by a Chinese artist of King emerging from a block of granite and stone walls engraved with quotes from King.

The Kellogg Foundation, started by the breakfast cereal pioneer in 1930, has recently focused its resources on vulnerable children who face poverty and discrimination. Officials said that while it does not typically fund construction projects, the King memorial stood out.

“The larger issue here isn’t monuments or memorials, it is building a stronger democracy and achieving racial equity,” said Sterling Speirn, president of the foundation, based in Battle Creek, Mich.

Some of the money already raised has been spent on administrative costs, and the memorial project officials declined to say how much they have in the bank. Johnson said administrative costs amounted to less than $6 million over seven years, but he declined to be more specific.

The National Park Service requires that the memorial foundation have at least $85.5 million for building and maintenance costs before the start of construction.

Written By BRETT ZONGKER

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 31st, 2008 at 4:38 pm and is filed under African-American News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.