An important landmark part of the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. has been restored and will soon open to the public in downtown Atlanta. The Prince Hall Masonic Grand Lodge is where King wrote speeches during the Civil Rights movement. The building also housed the headquarters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SLC).
The landmark was recently added to the MLK National Historic Park
The park was established as a “national historic site” in 1980 largely due to efforts led by Coretta Scott King. Several landmarks and monuments are included, such as King’s birth home, Ebenezer Baptist Church, where King was baptized, his tombstone and more.
In 2018, the site was officially recognized by the federal government as a national historic park, and this included the Prince Hall Masonic Grand Lodge as a new addition.
The building has since been fully restored to its original state. The national nonprofit Trust for Public Land has led restoration efforts worth $14 million with both federal and private funds. It will soon reopen to the public with new exhibits still being arranged and set to be installed in the upcoming weeks and months, according to The New York Times.
The visitors center has also been undergoing a $7 million restoration. Reginald Chapple, the park’s superintendent, said the park received additional funding from the federal government to renovate King’s childhood home and the home where he and Coretta lived and raised their children.
The park’s mission is to pay homage to MLK’s life and legacy
Opening the Prince Hall Masonic Grand Lodge to the public will help give even more context to King’s life.
“This really gives a full reflection of who Martin Luther King Jr. was,” Martin Luther King III, King’s eldest son, said in an interview with the New York Times.
Calinda N. Lee, a historian and former museum leader in Atlanta, added that the park has helped teach young generations about King’s legacy and presence in Atlanta.
“History is not the past,” Lee said. “History is what the past means for the present. And so, I want to see an understanding of what this has to do with us now.”
The building’s first floor was home to the headquarters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights organization that King helped found and led. On the second floor were the studios of WERD, the first Black-owned and operated radio station in the country. On the top floor was a meeting space of the Black Freemasons, who built the lodge and counted several prominent civic leaders as members, according to The New York Times.
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