After eight years of planning and a year of construction, the city will unveil on Aug. 22 theneighborhood's new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Avondale.
It's not just any memorial. Its importance brought the civil rights leader's daughter, Bernice King, to the city in August 2025 for the groundbreaking.
A year later, the city will unveil the new statue of King in a ceremony at 11 a.m. Saturday, Mayor Aftab Pureval, City Manager Sheryl Long and a long list of local Black leaders will attend.
"Thousands of people are going to pass this monument every day," said Sandra Jones-Mitchell, president of the Avondale Community Council. "And we want at residents of Avondale to feel proud."
What will the memorial look like?
The memorial, at the corner of Reading Road and Martin Luther King
Jr. Drive, is more than just a statute of King.
In 2021, the city conducted a nationwide search for artists, ultimately choosing Houston-based Re:Site Studio. Artists Shane Allbritton, Norman Lee and Stephen Hayes came up with a design called "The Light of Hope."
Earlier renderings of the memorial showed stained-glass pillars surrounding a bronze statue of King. Each pillar represented a different principle of nonviolence and featured images of King's life and work as well as the Civil Rights Movement.
A slightly larger-than-life size bronze of King preaching stands at the center of the memorial. A granite pedestal bench under the statue elevates it and is engraved with the words: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that.” It is a famous quote from King.
How much did it cost?
Cincinnati City Council in May 2021 allocated $1 million for the project. The city paused the project for additional public input, according to Long's office.
In May 2024, city council put in another $410,000 to complete the project for a total of $1.4 million.
Why is it needed?
The memorial will replace an earlier monument of King at the corner of Reading Road and Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. That monument, dedicated in 1987, was moved to MLK Park in North Avondale in 2017 to accommodate road construction.
Former Councilman Chris Smitherman started the initiative for a new statue.
The memorial will stand as a reminder of the economics, justice and social issues that King fought and died for, said Jones-Mitchell.
"He was killed because of the things that he believed in," Jones-Mitchell said. "We need to understand the reality of what he struggled for, and that's what we're going to keep out front for our young people."
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati unveils new Martin Luther King Jr. memorial
