FORT WAYNE, Indiana (Fort Wayne’s NBC) – A public monument commemorating the late Dr Martin Luther King’s visit to the city in the 1960s is expected to become an iconic downtown landmark.
The Fort Wayne Public Art Commission hopes the planned memorial will honor the country’s most famous civil rights leader and draw attention to a personal connection Dr King had with the city.
Dr King gave a speech while in town at the Scottish Rite Auditorium on Berry and Ewing Streets in June 1963.
The monument called “Pillars of Hope and Justice” will be built on the site which today houses the Center for the Performing Arts of the University of Saint-François.
The art commission solicited ideas for the monument from across the country and ultimately chose the winning proposal from a team of artists from Houston, Texas.
The monument will have six pillars arranged in a circular configuration around a stone or concrete square.
The words of Dr. King’s speech in Fort Wayne will be cut into the steel shapes using a powerful waterjet tool.
We are counting on the team of artists from Texas to pay a tribute that will last for years to come.
“They were one of the finalists for the World Trade Center sculptures, so we really think it’s going to be a destination piece,†said Nancy Stewart, chair of the Fort Wayne Public Art Commission.
“Having the memorial here, if you will, on this sacred ground, it shows that we are clearly, as a community at least, determined to make Dr. King’s dream take off, it is a monumental thing to our. community, â€said Reverend Bill McGill, senior pastor of the Imani Baptist Temple.
We are told that the art commission will seek the public’s opinion on which words from Dr. King’s speech in the city will be engraved in the sculpture.
The plan is to unveil the monument in June 2023, on the 60th anniversary of the King’s Speech in Fort Wayne.
