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History of the Memorial

January 15, 1929	Martin Luther King, Jr. (originally named Michael King) is born in Atlanta, GA.
February 25, 1948	King is ordained and is appointed associate pastor to his father, the pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church.
June 8, 1948	King graduates from Morehouse College with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Sociology.
May 6-8, 1951	King graduates Crozer Theological Seminary with a Bachelor of Divinity degree.
June 22, 1952	While attending graduate school at Boston University, King is initiated into the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.
June 18, 1953	King marries Miss Coretta Scott.
May 17, 1954	The United States Supreme Court rules unanimously that racial segregation in public schools is unconstitutional in Brown vs. the Board of Education, stating that “separate can never be equal.”
October 31, 1954	King is installed as the twentieth pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, AL.
June 5, 1955	King receives his Ph.D. degree in Systematic Theology from Boston University.
December 5, 1955	Dr. King is elected President of the Montgomery Improvement Association, the group formed to coordinate the bus boycott.
December 20, 1956	Buses in Montgomery are integrated after federal injunctions are issued against many city and bus company officials. In the months before integration of buses occurs, the United States Supreme Court upholds an earlier ruling that declares mandatory bus segregation laws unconstitutional.
February 14, 1957	The Southern Christian Leadership Conference ("SCLC") is formed ; Dr. King is named its first president.
February –March 1959	Dr. and Mrs. King spend a month in India as guests of Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, studying Mohandas K. Gandhi’s techniques of nonviolent resistance.
March – April, 1962	Dr. King is arrested during a demonstration in Birmingham. On April 16, he writes his famous “Letter from the Birmingham Jail,” in which he describes the motivation and defends the need for nonviolent, direct action.
October 1, 1962	James Meredith becomes the first black man to enter the University of Mississippi. He is enrolled by order of the Supreme Court and escorted onto campus by U.S. Marshals.
October 16, 1962	Dr. King meets with President John F. Kennedy at the White House, urging him to support civil rights.
May 3-5, 1963	At a protest in Birmingham, young demonstrators are attacked with dogs and assaulted with water from fire hoses by order of Eugene “Bull” Connor, Director of Public Safety. Media coverage of the event provokes a national outcry against the tactics employed by segregationist leaders.
June 11, 1963	Governor George C. Wallace attempts to stop integration of the University of Alabama by preventing black students and Justice Department officials from entering. Governor Wallace removes himself from blocking the entrance after President Kennedy federalizes the Alabama National Guard.
August 28, 1963	At the historic March on Washington, the first large integrated protest march, Dr. King delivers his famous “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall in Washington, DC.
September 15, 1963	The Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama is bombed, killing four young girls and injuring many worshippers. Dr. King delivers a eulogy for the girls.
Summer 1964	The Mississippi “Freedom Summer” Project, a voter registration drive, is organized and instituted by Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC), with the aid of the SCLC.
July 2, 1964	Dr. King attends the signing of the Public Accommodations Bill, a part of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, by President Lyndon B. Johnson.
August 25, 1964	Dr. King speaks at the Democratic National Convention, where the Democratic Party refused to seat members of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
December 10, 1964	Dr. King accepts the Nobel Prize for Peace in Oslo, Norway.
February 9, 1965	Dr. King meets with President Johnson and other leaders to discuss voting rights for African-Americans.
March 21-25, 1965	More than three thousand march from Selma to Montgomery under the protection of federal troops. Along the way, their numbers increased to twenty-five thousand. The march ends in Montgomery, where Dr. King gives an address from the steps of the state capitol.
Summer 1965	Riots break out in Watts, a neighborhood in Los Angeles, California.
August 6, 1965	President Johnson signs the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Spring 1966	To rally support for the election of black candidates, King makes a “People to People” tour of the South.
May 16, 1966	Dr. King makes an anti-war statement at a Vietnam War protest in Washington, DC.
June 8-24, 1966	Dr. King, many civil rights leaders and supporters continue James Meredith’s “March Against Fear” after Meredith is shot.
Summer 1967	Riots occur in 164 U.S. cities. The largest riots break out in Newark, New Jersey and Detroit, Michigan calling attention to the struggles faced by African Americans in Northern cities.
December 1967-1968	The SCLC forms and organizes the Poor People’s Campaign, a movement intended to alleviate poverty for Americans of all races and ethnicities.
April 4, 1968	Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.
April 7-9, 1968	April 7, 1968, declared a day of mourning, is marked by memorial events and religious services across the country. A silent march in held in Memphis, and on April 9, a funeral service at Ebenezer Baptist Church and a funeral procession take place in Atlanta.
November 2, 1983	The Martin Luther King, Jr. Federal Holiday bill, a measure proposed in every legislative session from 1968 by Rep. John Conyers is signed by President Ronald Reagan, declaring King’s birthday a national holiday. However, the first legal holiday nationwide does not occur until January 20, 1986.
January 1984	George Sealey is catalyst for convening Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity brothers Alfred Bailey, Oscar Little, Eddie Madison, and John Harvey, to propose building a national memorial to Dr. King. Their proposal is presented at the Fraternity’s Board of Director’s meeting, under the administration of General President Milton Davis.
November 12, 1996	President Clinton signs Congressional legislation proposing the establishment of a Memorial in the District of Columbia to honor Dr. King.
January 10, 1998	National Capital Memorial Commission votes to recommend Area 1.
February 27, 1998	Washington Post article is published: “King Memorial Takes a Step – Senate Bill Would Secure Prominent Site to Honor Slain Leader.” Joint Resolution 41 is introduced before the Senate by Senators Sarbanes (MD) and Warner (VA). Senator Landrieu (LA) was added as a co-sponsor.
March 4, 1998	Joint Resolution 113 introduced before the House of Representatives by Congressional members Morella (MD), Dixon (CA), and Cummings (MD) seeking Area 1 authorization.
March 5, 1998	Senator Cleland (GA) was added as a co-sponsor seeking Area 1 authorization.
March 7, 1998	Coretta Scott King agrees to serve as chairperson of the project’s Honorary Committee/ELC.
March 24, 1998	John Carter testifies before Senate subcommittee which oversees memorials in Washington, DC. Excerpt: “We now have an opportunity to break the trend of memorials to war and erect a monument which delivers a message of lifelong peace in our land. A memorial which embodies not just the image of Dr. King, but the image of America, which is often called the melting pot of the world.”
May 28, 1998	Charter for the Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc. approved.
June 22, 1998	House Joint Resolution 113 passed by the United States House of Representatives, giving the project Area 1 status.
June 25, 1998	Senate Joint Resolution 41 was passed by the United States Senate, giving the project Area 1 status.
October 1, 1998	National Capital Memorial Commission approved Area 1 – Constitutional Gardens.
January 15, 1999	BellSouth Corporation sponsored official MLK Memorial Web site http://www.mlkmemorial.org/index.html.
February 15, 1999	A poster announcing the design competition is prepared and distributed internationally to all schools of architecture, professional community of architecture, designers and artists.
March 4, 1999	The National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) votes 6-5 in favor of approving the east end of Constitution Gardens as the site for the Memorial, against our recommendation and against the recommendation of their staff. At issue for the five members voting against the motion is an interest to give the Foundation an opportunity to prepare more analysis. However, it is important to note that not all members who spoke voiced their preference for the Constitution Gardens site.
April 8, 1999	The Project Team appears before the Commission of Fine Arts (CFA). Recommendation of the Tidal Basin site reviewed and the decision of the NCPC is shared with CFA. The CFA votes unanimously to reject the Constitution Gardens site as an area of consideration. Instead, they gave the Foundation a recommendation to study two additional sites, one on the west end of Constitution Gardens and another on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
October 7, 1999	Chairman Gantt asks the Commission to approve the Tidal Basin site. He also appoints Robert Gaines to chair a special task force of NCPC commissioners and Foundation members.
December 2, 1999	The NCPC votes unanimously to rescind its March 4, 1999, action approving the east end of Constitution Gardens and approves a four-acre site adjacent to the Tidal Basin along with the design parameters, as indicated in the October 21, 1999 agreement.
December 2, 1999	A design specifications package is completed and is ready for mailing to individuals registered for the design competition.
December 2, 1999	A panel of competition assessors is named. These individuals are from the professions of architecture, landscape architecture and fine arts. - Dr. Ed Jackson, Jr., Jury Chair, American Institute of Architects, Professional Practice Division, Washington, DC - Prof. James Chaffers, ArchD., AIA, University of Michigan, School of Architecture, Ann Arbor, MI - Charles Correa, Hon. FAIA, Bombay, India - Prof. Randalf Hester, Jr., ASLA, University of California, Landscape Architecture, Berkeley, CA - William Lawson, FAIA, General Services Administration, Washington, DC - Prof. Jon Lockard, Artist, University of Michigan, School of Art and Design, Ann Arbor, MI - Karen Phillips, FASLA, Abyssinian Development Corporation, New York, NY - Prof. LaVerne Wells-Bowie, Florida A&M University, School of Architecture, Tallahassee, FL - Ricardo Legorreta, Hon. FAIA, Mexico City, Mexico - Prof. Wu Liangyong, Hon. FAIA, Tsinghua University, School of Architecture, Beijing, China - Dr. Suha Ozkan, Ankara Turkey: Secretary General, The Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Geneva, Switzerland
December 3, 1999	The site approval receives positive national media coverage, including CNN, NBC, ABC, COX, CBS and NPR. Over 78 articles are published in major newspapers, including the front page of the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times and the Atlanta Journal and Constitution.
September 12, 2000	The entry submitted by ROMA Design Group of San Francisco, California was selected as the winning design.
March 2001	The Foundation launched the quiet phase of the fundraising campaign. General Motors was the first major sponsor.
April 18, 2002	The Commission of Fine Arts (CFA) voted in favor of the Proposed design for the Memorial.
July 2002	Morgan Freeman donated his time to create a series of Public Service Announcements (PSAs) to raise awareness for the Memorial. In addition, Morgan Freeman voluntarily spoke to the media about the Memorial, including participation in an on-line discussion on Washingtonpost.com
November 2002	Under the auspices of the National Parks Service (NPS), the Foundation initiated the Environmental Assessment of the proposed site.
January 7, 2003	A public scoping meeting was convened to solicit comments and concerns about the proposed Memorial program.
May 7, 2003	Senate Majority Leader Frist hosted the launch of the national media campaign developed by the Ad Council in collaboration with the advertising firm Saatchi & Saatchi. The PSAs feature Halle Berry and Al Roker.
August 28, 2003	Fortieth anniversary of historic March on Washington. Yahoo! puts Memorial on their home-page to help increase awareness for the Memorial and help drive donations to the Project.
October 28, 2003	Foundation granted Congressional extension to raise additional funds needed for ground-breaking of Memorial.
January 2004	Foundation launched Faith-based initiative
February 2004	Press briefing held to announce Devrouax and Purnell/ROMA Design Group Joint Ventures as Architects of Record
June 2004	Procter and Gamble partnership established
July 2004	Tommy Hilfiger Corporation extends loan-executive to support Foundation staff
July 2004	Ed Dwight contracted to sculpt Stone of Hope donor gifts
September 2004	American Urban Radio Network partnership established.
September 2004	Tavis Smiley produced radio PSA.
October 2004	Morgan Freeman, Samaire Armstrong, and Bishop McClendon produced individual television PSAs.
November 2004	Tommy Hilfiger Corporation produces ELC fundraising video.
January 31, 2005	Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Foundation Announces $5 Million Fundraising Goal for Black History Month; Adds Aggressive Public Phase to "Build the Dream" Campaign.
March 29, 2005	Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Foundation and NCAA partner together: Model of MLK Memorial to be displayed at NCAA Hall of Champions.
April 1, 2005	Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Launches Faith-Based Initiative on Anniversary of King Assassination; Michigan Faith-Based Community to Raise $1 Million to Help Build Memorial.
June 10, 2005	Tommy Hilfiger Corporate Foundation Hosts Celebrity Golf Tournament to Benefit Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial; $1 Million Contribution to Help Build Major Memorial on National Mall.
June 28, 2005	Momentum Builds as U.S. Senate Votes to Provide $10 Million towards Building of Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on National Mall
August 22, 2005	"Kids for King" Program Launches to Commemorate 1963 March on Washington and ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech.
September 23, 2005	Toyota makes special announcement about the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial.
November 19, 2005	San Francisco Dream Dinner Nets $2.5 Million to Memorial Project.
December 1, 2005	National Capital Planning Commission (NCPC) Unanimously Approves Preliminary Design for the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial.