INDIANAPOLIS — Mayor Joe Hogsett joined community leaders to announce a new capital campaign to raise money for upgrades at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park on the anniversary of RFK’s historic speech on the property, April 4. The campaign hopes to raise $5 million to support needed renovations at the park, which will support the creation of shared infrastructure. The City of Indianapolis will contribute $1 million in infrastructure work to the campaign. The primary focus of this investment will be along the 19th Street corridor where new sidewalks, lighting, and pedestrian walkways will enhance resident engagement with the site and provide greater connectivity to the surrounding neighborhood.
“In 1968, as the nation’s emotions erupted into streets, Indianapolis hearkened to the values espoused in Dr. King’s countless sermons during the Civil Rights Movement and to the words of Sen. Robert Kennedy to set forth a ripple of hope,” said Darryl Lockett, executive director of KKMI. “It is upon that same hope that we come together year after year on April 4th, reaching above the artificial barriers we allow to divide us to renew a commitment to community.”
Located at 1702 Broadway Street in the Kennedy King neighborhood, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Park has become a celebrated place for residents to gather and play together, with a playground, an outdoor pool, shelters, and an abundance of green space. Year-round, the public is welcome to visit the “Landmark for Peace” memorial outside on the park’s grounds. Dedicated in 1995, the monument depicts the outlines of Kennedy and King reaching their hands out to one another over a walkway.