E-mail a friendHarry Johnson
original airdate February 10, 2005
Harry Johnson is President of the Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, a nonprofit established by Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity. Dr. King was a member of the fraternity, and Johnson is its immediate past national president. A native of St. Louis, MO, Johnson is a partner in a Houston, TX law firm and a board member of National Big Brothers and Big Sisters. He's a graduate of Xavier University and Texas Southern University's Thurgood Marshall School of Law.
Harry Johnson
Tavis: Harry Johnson is the president of the Washington, D.C.-based Martin Luther King National Memorial Project Foundation. He's overseeing a large-scale fund-raising task for the King Memorial. This month alone, the foundation hopes to raise over $5 million, principally through their website at BUILDTHEDREAM.ORG. Numerous celebrities are lending their support to the fund-raising effort, including this ad from hip-hop artist Nelly.
Nelly: I didn't know him, but I know his name. I was too young to be there, but I saw him stir thousands to action. I never heard him speak, but I saw his words move great men and women to achieve certain things in our nation. Recently, the Congress of the United States remembered Dr. King with a memorial on the Mall in Washington. It's not a gift to him. It's a gift to us and our children. To learn more, dial 888-484-3373 or BUILDTHEDREAM.ORG.
Tavis: Harry Johnson, nice to have you here.
Harry Johnson: What a pleasure to be here.
Tavis: Glad to have you here. This is an awfully ambitious project, even in the name of M.L.K.
Johnson: But it's doable, and we're gonna do it. We're excited about this. We really are. This is a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all Americans, indeed, the people of the world, to get involved in.
Tavis: How do you respond to people who would ask--and I'm not sure anybody is asking this, but I wanna ask you anyway...we already have a holiday named after Dr. King, deservedly. No debate about that. Why yet another project, particularly one to the tune of $100 million?
Johnson: Basically why is because the holiday is there symbolically. The memorial will be a place where people can go physically to see and reminisce about the works of Dr. King. We have holidays to Lincoln and Jefferson and other presidents, and yet still they have memorials on the Mall. This will be a significant piece in our history for our kids and grandkids to see a memorial to Dr. King for all his work that he has done or he did for this country.
Tavis: What's the most significant challenge, honestly, that you've been having in trying to raise this money to get this project complete?
Johnson: The hardest part is trying to get the word out. That's why this month of February, black history month, we're trying to use this as our pinnacle point of coming out of our quiet phase and going into our public phase of the campaign. We need celebrities like you and use your show and others to get the word out to the people that they can, in fact, be a part of this dream.
Tavis: Tell me how you have been challenged, specifically, to get the word out specifically to young people. Now, I recognize that young people don't have the wherewithal to make the kind of contributions that adults do, that corporate America does--I'm gonna talk about that in just a second--but there's been no significant movement ever in our history without the involvement of young people. I raise that because I see you got Nelly doing a PSA for this project. What kind of impact are you having, what kind of challenge are you having reaching out to get the word out to young folk who oftentimes inspire the rest of us to actually do something?
Johnson: Sure. We're excited that Nelly jumped on board with us to do the PSA. Today we just heard that MTV is excited about the Nelly piece, and they want to run it on MTV and do something there. It was our thoughts all along that we need to get our young men and women involved in this project because our study has shown that young folks know who Dr. King was, but they don't know what role he really played in our history. And so we hope with Nelly jumping on board that others like him will jump on board and send in their nickels, their quarters, their dollars--Nelly's got a lot of dollars--to help support the project.
Tavis: I look at all the projects in this country that get funded in any given year, and so much of that support to do a variety of things in this country comes from corporate America. What kind of support are you getting from corporate America?
Johnson: Oh, we're blessed to have a great corporate support. From day one, General Motors has been on board to the tune of $10 million. Tommy Hilfiger to the tune of $5 million. Fannie Mae Corporation, $1 million. And we're excited that we just saw AFLAC--the duck insurance company--coughed up $1 million 2 weeks ago. Ford Motor Company to the tune of $2 million. J.W. Marriott, for the Marriott, $500,000 out of his own pocket. So we're getting some great corporate support. We actually have an ELC that's headed up by Gary Cowger, the president of General Motors, and Andy Young, who are knocking on corporate doors for us.
Tavis: Let me ask you a question that is a bit more critical. And I say this with all due respect. I know you'll give me an honest answer here. I can point to you--point to any number of memorials around this country. First of all, just in this city alone, uh, that our Jewish brothers and sisters have gotten behind and put major dollars behind to make sure that people never forget the contributions, some of the struggles, that Jews have had to overcome. Talk to me specifically about what black folk are doing, or not doing, as it were. I asked you the corporate American question. I wanna talk about us now. What are black folk doing to make this project happen?
Johnson: Let me tell you, we have on board Dick Parsons, we have Andy Youngs of the world, uh, Joe Moses, Rod Gillum to help us out. And Tommy Hilfiger and somebody named Guy Vickers. We're trying to get the word out to African Americans because in my point, who should build this memorial to Dr. King? It really oughta be anybody who benefited from anything Dr. King said or did. That includes blacks and whites, but more specifically, us black folks. So, hopefully, Tavis, that's why we want to key in on trying to get the word out to African Americans and especially Tom Joyner's picked up the piece, Procter-Gamble came onboard through a piece that they did with Sybil and they were in Houston last week. They're going to Dallas this week. And next week, I think they're going to Philly and then Atlanta...where they learn the dream, and understanding the dream, which highlights the memorial, and in that process Procter and Gamble was asking for donations, specifically from African Americans.
Tavis: Tell me more about the project itself--where's it gonna be located, the significance and why you chose to put it where it is to be placed. Tell me more about the actual memorial itself.
Johnson: We're actually blessed. Congress, when they authorized one, President Clinton signed the law in 1998 to get 4 acres of prime real estate land on the tidal basin. And the significance of this is simply that Dr. King is gonna be on the tidal basin overlooking the body of water there looking at the Jefferson Memorial. Behind Dr. King will be the Lincoln Memorial. We feel it's a direct line of leadership from my country, from Lincoln to King to Jefferson. The way this thing is gonna be positioned is that it's gonna look as though some boulder, a piece of granite, that's split in 2. That boulder will signify what we call "The Mountain of Despair." Dr. King will appear to look as though he's walking out of the mountain of despair looking at Jefferson. Dr. King himself will be on what we call "The Stone of Hope." The stone of hope will have on its side pieces from Dr. King's speech, that when the architects of this country wrote magnificent words, they were in fact signing a promissory note. And it's just ironic that he's looking at Jefferson. But more importantly, the site that we have, right on the tidal basin, visitors will be able to walk in, read Dr. King's words on 24 different panels that were drawn up from our Council of Historians, including Maya Angelou, John Hope Franklin, and others, but visitors go to this site every year to see our cherry trees blossom. They happen to bloom the same week that Dr. King was assassinated. We just think that's huge for this country, indeed the world.
Tavis: April 4.
Johnson: April 4.
Tavis: Yeah. Um, talk to me about the significance--it's not just--we're talking about Dr. King, of course, in this conversation. But as I think about it, there is not a single person of color or woman who has a memorial dedicated to their life and their legacy on that Mall. I mean there's clearly some giants on that Mall. But a country that is as multicultural, as multiracial, as multiethnic as this country is, a country that wouldn't be the great country she is without the contributions of African Americans and people of color and women...do not--a country, this country, at the moment at least, does not honor anyone on the National Mall.
Johnson: That's correct. On the National Mall, Dr. King will be the first man of color. He will be the first man of peace, and he will certainly be the first minister on the Mall. Because generally on that Mall, we honor our presidents and other war heroes. So now you're gonna have a man of peace. But more importantly, what will happen when this thing is erected, is that your children, your grandchildren will be able to go to the mall and see a mall that is diversified and that is reflective of America. And that's what's the most important issue is here today when we talk about building this memorial to Dr. King.
Tavis: There have been, as you well know, some detractors, not many, but some detractors who've said they don't have a problem with the project, but that King does not belong on that Mall where those other presidents are. To that, you say?
Johnson: I say to them that Dr. King deserves to be everywhere anybody else is because he changed history. When Lincoln was placed on the Mall, he was placed on the Mall, not because he freed the slaves, but because he mended this country back together in 1865. King needs to be there because he also mended this country together in the sixties when we were about to be split...whites versus blacks, rich versus poor. Dr. King brought us together and said, no, we all need to be one.
Tavis: You've done a great job here of talking about the project. I would expect no less from the guy who's in charge of the project. But let me ask you, 30 seconds here, how hopeful are you, because this again is a very tall order. How hopeful are you that you can actually pull this thing off?
Johnson: Very hopeful. It can be done. This month alone, we have a goal of reaching $5 million. We're gonna have some braces that we're gonna sell, blue braces, and we're trying to drive people to our website: WWW.BUILDTHEDREAM, or to our telephone number: 1-888-THEDREAM. We can build this project. "Parade" magazine will have an article in it. You will see a lot of things going around the Mall this month.
Tavis: This is BUILDTHEDREAM.COM?
Johnson: .ORG.
Tavis: .ORG. So WWW.BUILDTHEDREAM.ORG. There you have it. All right, so log onto the web site, figure out how you can help empower this project and the memory, the life, and legacy of Dr. King, I think one of the greatest Americans, perhaps the greatest American we've ever produced. Harry Johnson, nice to see you.
Johnson: Thank you very much.
Tavis: Glad to have you on the program. Up next, "Law and Order" star S. Epatha Merkerson. Stay with us.
Back to February 10, 2005