Thousands of people began gathering at dawn Sunday at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington DC. The crowd was there to give the memorial a proper dedication on the National Mall after its opening in August.
Aretha Franklin, poet Nikki Giovanni and President Obama are among those who will be on hand to help honor Dr. King's legacy.
The monument to the slain civil rights icon was supposed to open on August 28 - the anniversary of the 1963 March on Washington when King delivered his pivotal "I Have a Dream" speech - but Hurricane Irene forced the ceremony to be posponed.
Bernice King, one of King's daughters, said her father's message rings especially true now with everything that's going on.
"As we dedicate this monument, I can hear my father saying that oppressed people cannot remain oppressed forever," she said. "The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself ... I hear my father saying what we are seeing now, all across the streets of America and the world, is a freedom explosion."
She called for "a radical revolution of values and reordering of priorities in this nation."
Source: bossip.com
