Positioned on Garfield Boulevard at the gateway to George Washington Park, in the community that also bears his name, the proposed site of the Presidential Center is rich in symbolism.  This is the Land of Lincoln’s foremost crossroads where American civics and the civil rights movement converge.  Here, directly on South Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, a monument to America’s first Black president can rise within a context memorializing the nation’s first.

With Dr. King’s former South Side pulpit located just 0.5 miles to the north, the location forms a true connection to this critical history.  It is fitting and inspiring to remember that on these very streets, Barack Obama ascended to become president of the United States, just decades after Dr. King was here organizing peaceful opposition to the status quo.

At the same time, the Barack Obama Presidential Center in Washington Park represents an unparalleled opportunity to make a majestic neighborhood whole again.  Chicago and the Obama Foundation should utilize this new investment to the fullest of its ability, to right the decades-long wrongs that have caused countless Chicagoans to unfairly suffer. This action would represent positive, decisive action toward the fulfillment of Dr. King’s Dream.

(For further discussion on this topic, please refer to the following section on The Cityscape.)