Committee seeks to build monument in HackensackWednesday November 28, 2012, 1:45 PM
BY MEGAN BURROW
MANAGING EDITOR
Teaneck Suburbanite
With two recent sizable donations, and many smaller ones from residents across the area, a committee dedicated to erecting a monument in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. is inching closer to its goal.
PHOTO COURTESY OF JANICE JOHNSON
The Bergen County Martin Luther King, Jr. Committee is seeking to build a monument of Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Hackensack River Pathway. The Bergen County Martin Luther King, Jr. Monument Committee seeks to build a life size bronze monument of King on the Hackensack River Pathway as it crosses the Fairleigh Dickinson University campus in Hackensack.
The monument will honor King's legacy and stand as a physical reminder of his dream of a more equal and just society, committee members said.
"About five years ago some of us became cognizant that there was very little visibility of African Americans' contributions here in the county," said Theodora Lacey, a Teaneck resident and co-chair of the monument committee.
Before moving to Teaneck in the late 1950s, Lacey lived in Louisiana, where she and her husband were active in the civil rights movement. In Teaneck, the Laceys worked with others to change discriminatory housing practices and desegregate township schools.
As a representative of the Martin Luther King Birthday Observance Committee, Lacey wrote to the Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders requesting that a life size statue of King be erected in the county.
Vernon Walton, a freeholder at the time, was receptive to the idea and brought it before the board, which granted the organization land from a county easement on the FDU campus about two years ago.
Since gaining the site, the group has worked to raise the necessary funds. Teaneck's Puffin Foundation recently gave $10,000, and another $10,000 donation was given by the Bergen County Chapter of Links, a community service organization.
Arnold Brown, a co-chair of the monument committee, estimated the project will cost about $250,000 to complete.
The committee received 14 proposals from artists across the country before recently signing a contract with sculptor Richard Blake.
Brown said the decision was reached after receiving community input on the various designs. The proposals for the statue were displayed at a Juneteenth observation at Overpeck Park this summer, and at an exhibit at at Five Star Premier Residences of Teaneck, where attendees voted for their choice.
To help raise funds in support of the project, the committee has instituted a "gift program" where if donors reach certain levels, they will receive recognition at the monument site with an inscribed paver.
"We'll accept all funds -- pennies from our children, dollars from the young adults and mega-dollars from the wider community, including corporations, foundations and community groups," said Brown. "This monument is not only about a person, but about the principles that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. stood for, fought for, and died for; peace, justice and equality."
The college campus is a particularly appropriate site for the monument, committee members said, given King's work as a peace leader and scholar.
As the project moves forward, the committee hopes to get students more involved with the project. "We have a number of plans to involve the students," said committee member Janice Johnson. "Originally we asked them to get involved with the design of our logo, and with social media outreach. What I like about the movement is that it really holds true to Dr. Martin Luther King's dream of creating a diversified world. This has become the effort of community leaders, students and residents. Everyone is making a contribution."
For the past four years, the birthday observance committee has held an essay contest for area high school students, with a scholarship awarded for the best essay on why the writer believes a monument should be erected in King's honor.
Passing on King's message to the next generation is one of the committee's key goals.
"To me it is about continuing to educate those that are coming behind us, the youth," said member Shelley Washington. "If we do not continue to educate and honor his legacy and what he stood for, there is always a possibility of backsliding. We need to maintain his legacy so that we can all be in peace and harmony with each other."
Brown said he believes King's dream is still a work in progress, a movement he hopes this monument will advance. "I don't think Dr. King's work is over. This coming year is the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington and I was no more than 5 or 10 feet away from Dr. King when he gave his 'I Have a Dream' speech. This has great meaning to me."
Lacey, who knew King personally in her youth, said that if he were alive today, she believes King would be proud of the committee's work, not for building a statue in his honor, but for serving as an example of people from different backgrounds working together toward a common goal.
"He would be so pleased that here in Bergen County in 2012 there is a group of people, so diverse and so committed to making sure that future generations will continue his dream," she said. "He was never in a crowd where there were people too low or too high for him to communicate with. People were people. He saw everyone as equal and deserving of justice and peace. Hopefully this monument will serve as a "beacon to others to continue his beliefs."
