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MLK's message remembered at memorial groundbreaking

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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Presidents, civil rights icons, celebrities and ordinary citizens gathered Monday on the National Mall, where construction is getting under way for a monument honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

The monument will be built on a four-acre site near the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington for civil rights in August 1963.

President Bush said that he was proud to dedicate the memorial to "the lasting memory of a great man."

"Dr. King showed us that a life of conscience and purpose can lift up many souls, and on this ground a monument will rise that preserves his legacy for the ages," Bush said.

"Honoring Dr. King's legacy requires more than building a monument. It requires the ongoing commitment of every American. So we will continue to work for the day when the dignity and humanity of every person is respected and the American promise is denied to no one." (Watch praise and song during ceremony -- 4:56 )

Bush said it was fitting to place the King Memorial between the monuments for Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln.

"By its presence in this place, it will unite the men who declared the promise of America and defended the promise of America with the man who redeemed the promise of America," Bush said. (Map)

President Clinton signed legislation that kicked off the project in 1996.

"The monument, however beautiful it turns out to be, will be but a physical manifestation of the monument constructed in the minds and hearts of millions of Americans, who are more just, more decent, more successful, more perfect because he lived," Clinton said. (Watch civil rights icons talk about MLK and the memorial -- 2:10)

Clinton also stressed the importance of King's nonviolent message in today's society.

"When the real battlefield is the human heart, civil disobedience works better than suicide bombings. Fighting your opponent with respect and reason works better than aspersion and attack."

Members of the King family attended the ceremony along with current and former members of Congress, writer Maya Angelou, talk show host Oprah Winfrey and civil rights leaders such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton.

Construction of the $100 million monument is scheduled to be completed in 2008, 40 years after King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.

Backers have raised more than $65 million, according to The Associated Press. Most of the funding has come from corporate donors including Tommy Hilfiger and General Motors. (Interactive: Tour the memorial)

The monument's design was inspired by King's stirring sermons and will feature flowing water that will match the cadence of his speech.

According to the memorial's official Web site, visitors entering the memorial will pass through two stones described as the mountain of despair to reach a third, the stone of hope -- echoing King's 1963 speech.

The line "with this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope" will be carved into one side of the entry.

The other side will be inscribed with the words: "Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

Former U.N. Ambassador Andrew Young, one of King's lieutenants, said King's words were not important because he said them but because he lived them.

The King Memorial will be the first monument to a black American on the National Mall.

Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.

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