Title:
For Martin Luther King, a Memorial in Washington
Designed by a Chinese Artist
Description: This is
a VOA Special English General News Report.
See text below
Text:
MARTIN LUTHER KING: "I have a dream that one day
this nation will rise up, and live out the true
meaning of its creed."
Civil rights leader Martin Luther King Junior helped
to change American history. He led protests against
racial separation. And he taught non-violence, even
when threatened with violence. His efforts helped
lead to the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
MARTIN LUTHER KING: "Free at last! Free at last!
Thank God almighty, we are free at last!"
Four years later, King was murdered in Memphis,
Tennessee. Now, a memorial on the National Mall in
Washington will honor him. The memorial is set to
open in August. Harry Johnson heads the Martin
Luther King Memorial Foundation.
HARRY JOHNSON: "I think we are overjoyed here at the
Memorial Foundation. Knowing, understanding and
believing that this is going to come to fruition.
And that we are soon going to have a Martin Luther
King Memorial here on our nation's Mall."
The memorial will occupy land close to the
Washington Monument and other famous memorials.
HARRY JOHNSON:"We have a small water feature on each
side of the Mountain of Despair."
The memorial will have a 1,600-metric-ton granite
structure called the Mountain of Despair and a
10-meter-high statue of King himself.
HARRY JOHNSON: "This model was more of what is going
to be there. You see he has a scroll of paper here."
The granite marker is the work of Chinese artist Lei
Yixin. Harry Johnson explains why the artist was
chosen.
HARRY JOHNSON: "We chose him because we really
believe that Dr. King's message is true that you
should not judge a person by the color of his skin,
but by the content of his character. In these terms,
we are thinking artistic character."
Johnson says the memorial will be a powerful
statement, and show how much progress the country
has made in the area of civil rights.
HARRY JOHNSON: "If America was as prejudiced as they
say, then would they ever put an African-American on
the Mall? And, the answer would be no. They said now
the Mall is now diversified. Now we have an America
that looks like America, when they look at the Mall.
And I think visitors from around the world are going
to say it is about time that you all understand who
Dr. King really was and what he means, not to just
America, but indeed the world."
Johnson says President Obama has been invited to
speak at the opening of the Martin Luther King
memorial. I'm Mario Ritter.
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Hi. I
personally reviewed this video and found it appropriate for
the news section of English Global Group. This
is a Voice of America video which covers an interesting
topic in Special English. I would appreciate some feedback from both
students and teachers about this video. You can comment in
the window below using any of a number of different services
including Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, and Hotmail.
