King memorial planned for Washington mall

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Organizers of a new Martin Luther King Jr., memorial hope to break ground on Washington's National Mall in November.

The plan is to place the civil rights leader in the same class as Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Backers hope to raise enough money to begin construction and complete the $100 million project in 2008, the 40th anniversary of King's death.

King's birthday, a federal holiday, will be observed Monday. He would have been 77 on Sunday.

The memorial, to be located on four acres adjacent to the FDR memorial, will be midway between the Jefferson and Lincoln memorials where King delivered his famous "I Have a Dream" speech in 1963, USA Today said.

When built, the memorial will be the first on the mall dedicated to a non-president and an African-American.