MLK memorial dedication canceled due to Irene
WASHINGTON - With Hurricane Irene bearing down on the U.S. capital, organizers postponed a weekend dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall, dashing hopes of paying tribute to the civil rights leader on the 48th anniversary of his "I Have a Dream" speech.
The dedication had been planned for 11 a.m. (1500 GMT) Sunday, and organizers expected up to 250,000 people to attend. President Barack Obama was one of the scheduled speakers, and organizers were in the process of setting up a stage and chairs beside the King memorial, which sits on a 4-acre (1.6-hectare) waterfront site in the nation's capital.
Harry Johnson, the president of the foundation that built the memorial, announced at a hastily called news conference Thursday evening that the dedication will be postponed until September or October. Hours earlier, Johnson had insisted at another media briefing that the dedication would continue as scheduled.
He changed his mind after studying forecasts that indicated Irene was strengthening and tracking more toward the west.
"I remained optimistic all day, but Mother Nature is Mother Nature," Johnson said. "I'm very disappointed and hurt, really. We all are."
Heavy winds and rain were forecast in Washington for Sunday morning, with Irene expected to take an unpredictable path up the East Coast, the National Weather Service said.
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The possibility that a hurricane direct hit would disrupt the dedication was slim. The last named storm to do major damage in the Washington area was Isabel in 2003, and a major hurricane -- considered a Category 3 with winds of at least 111 mph (178 kph) -- hasn't hit the East Coast since Hurricane Jeanne struck Florida in 2004.
A black-tie gala scheduled for Saturday night was canceled, the foundation said. However, the memorial was to be open to the public all day Friday and from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday. Johnson said that in hindsight, his best decision was to open the memorial to the public on Monday ahead of the dedication.
"The memorial is going to be there forever," he said.
The centerpiece of the memorial is a 30-foot (9-meter) sculpture of King by Chinese artist Lei Yixin. King, whose "Dream" speech during the March on Washington galvanized the civil rights movement, appears to emerge from a stone carved out of a mountain. The memorial also includes a 450-foot(137-meter)-long granite wall inscribed with 14 quotations from King's speeches and writings.
The sculpture depicts King with a stern, enigmatic gaze, wearing a jacket and tie, his arms folded and clutching papers in his left hand.
King, who was slain in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1968, is the first person of color to be honored with a memorial on the Mall. It is surrounded by memorials to presidents -- Thomas Jefferson to the southeast, Abraham Lincoln to the northwest, Franklin Delano Roosevelt to the south.