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By Steve Hall |
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May 10, 2010 -
Delta Air Lines announced that its employees and customers have raised
$1 million for the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial in
"Reaching our goal
of one million dollars is a true testament of what can be accomplished
when our employees and customers work together to honor Dr. Martin
Luther King Jr.'s legacy,"
Martin Luther
King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman,
activist and prominent leader in the African American civil rights
movement. His main legacy was to secure progress on civil rights in the |
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A Baptist
minister, King became a civil rights activist early in his career.
He led the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and helped found the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference in 1957, serving as its first
president. King's efforts led to the 1963 March on
In 1964, King
became the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his work
to end racial segregation and racial discrimination through civil
disobedience and other non-violent means. By the time of his death in
1968, he had refocused his efforts on ending poverty and the Vietnam
War, both from a religious perspective. King was assassinated on April
4, 1968, in Several civil rights icons helped mark the occasion, including the Rev. Joseph Lowery, Ambassador Andrew Young and U.S. Rep. John Lewis. All of the men marched with Dr. King during the 1960s. Other dignitaries on hand included Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed and Dr. King's daughter, Bernice King. |
When completed, the $120 million memorial will mark the first monument to an African American on the National Mall. With Delta's donation, more than $107 million dollars has been raised. The monument is being constructed on a four-acre site near the Lincoln Memorial, where Dr. King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, and is scheduled to be completed in the fall of 2011.
Selected
quotations from Dr. King's writing, sermons and speeches will be
permanently engraved into the memorial walls. "The memorial is all about the human spirit and a dream by a man that forever changed this country," said Ambassador Young. "We are so grateful for the generosity of Delta and its customers." Delta Air Lines serves more than 160 million customers each year. With its unsurpassed global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 358 destinations in 66 countries on six continents. Delta employs more than 70,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of nearly 800 aircraft. |
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