Coca-Cola Is Donating
Land
for Proposed Rights
Museum
By SHAILA DEWAN,
NYTimes on the Web, October 24, 2006
ATLANTA, Oct. 23 — The
Coca-Cola Company said Monday that it would donate two and a half acres of prime
land near the downtown tourist district to a proposed civil rights museum that
would hold, among other exhibits, the papers of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King
Jr.
Mayor Shirley Franklin, who endorsed the idea of the museum after she was
approached by Andrew Young, a former mayor, and Evelyn Lowery, founder of the
Women’s Organizational Movement for Equality of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference, said similar projects in other cities had cost $50
million to upwards of $100 million.
Still, no specific plans for the museum have been announced, and Coca-Cola’s
gift would be the first contribution to the effort.
“It’s something that I’ve been talking quietly to people about,” Ms. Franklin
said, “recognizing that it takes a long time to put these things together.”
Neville Isdell, the chairman and chief executive of Coca-Cola, said the land was
valued at $8 million to $11 million. It is part of a downtown parcel that
includes the city’s new aquarium and the new World of Coca-Cola museum, to open
next May. The hope is that the aquarium, which has had more than three
million visitors since it opened last November, will increase traffic for the
area’s other attractions, including the CNN Center and Centennial Olympic Park.
But the city has not even raised all the money to pay for the King papers, which
were saved from the auction block at Sotheby’s in June and are expected to be
one of the museum’s central exhibits. A group led by Mayor Franklin,
working through a nonprofit organization, secured a loan for $32 million to buy
the papers, which include handwritten notes and original drafts of speeches by
Dr. King.
About $20 million has been raised for the papers so far, including $2 million
from Coca-Cola.
The papers are overseen by Morehouse College.
The museum would join others across the country dedicated to black history and
culture or to preserving major sites of the civil rights movement, including the
highly regarded Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Some critics have
questioned the need for more.
Atlanta leaders argue, however, that the city, the birthplace of Dr. King and
home to numerous civil rights leaders, made a particular contribution to the
civil rights era even though the city was relatively free of violence.
“This city is the principal guardian of Dr. King’s dream,” Mr. Isdell said.
He announced the Coca-Cola gift at an Atlanta Rotary Club luncheon, calling the
proposed museum “the highest and best use” for the land.
Representative John Lewis, a Democrat from Atlanta and one of the few blacks at
the luncheon, said he thought it was appropriate to make the announcement at a
business gathering.
“It’s so fitting to do this with the business community,” Mr. Lewis said.
“It helps to educate and sensitize them. When Coca-Cola speaks, the business
community listens.”
Coca-Cola, which is based in Atlanta, has often led the way here in changing
attitudes about race. When Dr. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in
1964, it was Robert Woodruff, then the leader of the company, who made sure that
his hometown, where many members of the white establishment still thought of Dr.
King as a troublemaker, honored him at a gala dinner for 1,500.
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