Wal-Mart Foundation provids $12.5 million letter of credit for Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial
When people ask me if I’m going to the Obama Inauguration, I usually tell that the next time I go to D.C. will most likely be for the dedication of the Martin Luther King Memorial. As a member of Alpha Phi Alpha this is a project that is near and dear because our Fraternity kicked off this massive undertaking while I was an undergraduate at Texas A&M (Potent Pi Omicron Chapter).
On Thursday, the leadership of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc. announced that Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. has provided a $12.5 million letter of credit through their Wal-Mart Foundation to the project. The funds will expedite the beginning of physical construction of the memorial. The foundation’s contributed a $1 million donation in 2005.
Harry E. Johnson is President and CEO of the MLK Memorial Foundation and former General President of Alpha Phi Alpha. “”Wal-Mart’s partnership demonstrates the company’s ongoing commitment to the community and to the causes important to its associates and customers,” Johnson says. “The company’s continued support helps to uphold the ideals of hope, democracy, justice and love for which Dr. King stood.”
To date, the Memorial Foundation has raised $100 million towards its fundraising goal of $120 million.
A Memorial honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. will be built on the National Mall, situated adjacent to the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial and in a direct line between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. Congress passed Joint Resolutions in 1996 authorizing Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. to establish a Memorial honoring Dr. King to be built in Washington, D.C.
Source: PR Newswire
