Senate OKs Money to Start MLK Memorial

A good story to start the day with.

By ANDREW TAYLOR
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate approved $10 million to help begin groundbreaking for a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall here - the first monument there to a person of color.

The $100 million memorial to King is to be built on a four-acre site next to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial. Construction is scheduled to begin in November 2006, provided sufficient fund-raising progress is made by the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation. The group has already raised almost $40 million in private funding for the memorial to the slain civil rights leader.

"I have come to appreciate how Martin Luther King Jr., sought to help our nation overcome racial barriers, bigotry, hatred, and injustice, and how he helped to inspire and guide a most important, most powerful, and most transforming social movement," said Sen. Robert C. Byrd, D-W.Va., the sponsor of the measure.

Semper Fi

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