THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 15, 1996 TAG: 9601150047
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY DENISE WATSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines
Organizers of the long-proposed Martin Luther King Jr. monument are nearing their goal of $500,000 and hope to begin construction this spring.
``We're very excited,'' said Anna Jordan Brinkley, first vice president of the Joe Jordan Foundation, which is heading the project.
``Up until August of 1994, the largest donation had been $10,000 and we'd received that in 1991 . . . But now donations have increased and very rapidly, $15,000, $20,000, $50,000 - all amounts. We've been quite encouraged.''
The project is a proposed 150-foot aluminum monument with waterfalls and relief sculptures of Martin Luther King Jr., the slain civil rights leader. The late Joseph A. Jordan Jr. originated the idea when he was a Norfolk city councilman in the mid-1970s. Jordan, a local civil rights activist, began the Jordan Foundation in the early '70s to build and support memorials that symbolize the social contributions of African Americans.
The King monument would be built in a traffic circle at Church Street and Brambleton Avenue, an area that once was the hub of Norfolk's black population.
``Joseph proposed it to City Council as part of the revitalization of Church Street businesses,'' said Brinkley, Jordan's sister.
``His thinking is that you could have the monument and go down the street and see Norfolk State University, a black institution. Go down further and see Booker T. Washington High School, go down Virginia Beach Boulevard and see the Attucks Theater - all of these landmarks in honor of blacks.''
The future of the 20-year-old project looks promising but it has had a doubtful past. Jordan had envisioned raising most of the money from the average citizen, but the 29-cent to $2,000 contributions were never enough to reach the original goal of $400,000.
Over the years, contributors often demanded organizers settle for a smaller memorial, refund the money or invest it in another project, such as the renovation of the Attucks Theater into a black cultural center.
``We get all sorts of accusations,'' Brinkley said.
``We are supporters of the Attucks building; we've made contributions as individual family members and as the foundation. But we've felt that so many people had originally contributed to the monument, for the original monument, and no matter how much money it was, we couldn't put that money toward something else.''
The past two years have been good ones for Jordan's dream. Support from local businesses and the Urban League of Hampton Roads has brought in close to $300,000 in pledges and donations; the current total is about $485,000.
Yet, the foundation had to raise its financial target last year to deal with the rise in architectural costs.
``The architect designed it 10 years ago and city codes have changed,'' said Hunter A. Hogan Jr., a local business leader and major fund-raiser.
``When he designed it, the wind factor was 80 miles per hour, but now it's 100. We'll have to bring in a structural engineer and civil engineer because there are a lot of underground structures in that area.
``We can't go out and do this until specifications are finished.''
But Hogan, like Brinkley, feels confident that the project will begin within the next few months.
``Oh, yea,'' Hogan said. ``I'm just waiting on a few more signatures, two or three people to pass it by their boards, and we'll reach our goal.'' by CNB