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BY CHESTER JONES
United Methodist News Service

Though his voice was silenced by an assassin?s bullet in Memphis on April 4, 1968, at the young age of 39, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.?s words and ideals are still with us, still a part of our national and cultural consciousness.

An assassin?s bullet could not kill the dream even though it killed the dreamer. That shared dream serves as a wake-up call to our nation at a critical time in America?s history.

On Monday, Nov. 13, a chilly, gray morning, I experienced a heart-warming Emmaus moment when I attended the historic, ceremonial groundbreaking on the National Mall in Washington, for a memorial to honor this courageous hero and leader of America?s nonviolent civil rights movement.

It was a proud day for all of us who believe in what this man of peace represented. Despite the bad weather, many people brought their children to be part of a great history lesson.

The King Memorial will be the first on the Mall to honor an African American, as well as the first not built to honor a president or war hero.

Some African Americans feel the memorial is a mere down payment on the debt that was promised and is still owed to every African-American family who endured slavery and racial discrimination. Many feel it is about time that a memorial to a person of color is built on the Mall. Who could deserve that honor more than this leader of the modern civil rights movement?

King was a Baptist minister and preacher 'who just wanted to be a great pastor,' said his youngest child, the Rev. Bernice King. However, God gave him the world as a parish and pulpit, and he used the depth and breadth of his influence to pull this nation out of the pathetic pit of racism and discrimination.

It was no accident that the groundbreaking ceremony for his memorial was held on the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court?s decision that outlawed racial segregation in public transportation.

King spoke to an America long blinded by racism and ensnared by segregation. Many of its white citizens were like the rich man in the Bible who passed by the beggar Lazarus every day but pretended not to see him (Luke 16:21). King used his pulpit to remind this nation that she was treating her African-American citizens like the rich man treated Lazarus.

The King Memorial will stand as a lasting tribute to a great American who taught us that all people are made in the image of God. He reminded the nation in the darkest hours of the civil rights movement that there are no exceptions to the promises made in the Declaration of Independence: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal . . .'

We still have work to do to achieve the promises made in that noble manifesto and to help this nation fulfill Dr. King?s dream.

Congress authorized the establishment of a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. in 1996. It is being built to honor the ideals and sacrifices made in the fight for freedom and human dignity for all people. 'This is a memorial to the man who redeemed the promises of America that Jefferson and Lincoln made,' President George Bush said in his tribute at the groundbreaking.

President Bill Clinton, who signed the bill to build the memorial, said, 'Jefferson told us we were all created equal and Lincoln abolished slavery; but both left much undone.' He praised King for his commitment to nonviolence and social justice in his efforts to end poverty, a goal that has not yet been achieved.

Former Senator Jack Kemp said, 'Dr. King?s dream was not just for black folks and white folks, but for all folks.'

When completed in 2008, the King Memorial will sit on a four-acre plot of ground on the National Mall, between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. About $30.6 million of the estimated $100 million needed has been raised. (The Baltimore-Washington Conference made a significant financial contribution.)

Many of King?s sermons and speeches will be archived at the site, including his famous 'I Have a Dream' speech, given on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963. Civil rights leaders like Andrew Young, Jesse Jackson and John Lewis teared up at the end of the ceremony, when they took shovels and dug dirt from the ground on the Mall to officially close the groundbreaking ceremony. Gospel singer BeBe Winans sang 'Oh, Happy Day' with the Ebenezer African Methodist Episcopal Church choir.

The shoveling of dirt from the ground did not end the ceremony for me but reminded me of the Good Friday and Easter ceremonies and celebrations we have in churches each year. Those services remind us as children of God that 'We fall down, but we rise up.' That is one of the essential lessons taught in the church.

The Rev. Chester Jones is top staff executive of the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race, located in Washington, D.C.