St. Louis, Missouri
native Nelly presented a $50,000 check as a donation to the Martin Luther King
Memorial Project Foundation.
The donation will help build
a memorial on the mall in Washington, D.C., in honor of the civil rights legend,
who was assassinated in 1968.
Founders of the project
hope that the monument will educate people about King and his accomplishments.
"I think anytime you
can be in conjunction with a great man such as Dr. King, it’s only right,"
Nelly told the St. Louis American.
The memorial will cost almost
$100 million dollars to build and maintain. Organizers say they have already
raised $65 million.
The foundation has until
2006 to collect the additional $35 million to break ground and start building
the monument.
"The memorial
will commemorate King’s legacy and belief that every human being is valuable
and necessary and that each of us is universally deserving of equitable access
to the democratic ideals of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,"
said Harry Johnson, president of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Monument
Project Foundation.
