Work Begins on Martin Luther King Memorial

The three towering figures in American history - George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln - were joined by a fourth yesterday when ground was broken for a national memorial to the civil rights leader Martin Luther King.

King's family, including daughters Yolanda King and Bernice King joined Bill Clinton, African-American television personalities and civil rights activists to mark the start of construction of a $100m (£52m) memorial in honour of the man who led resistance to the segregationist laws of the south.

King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4 1968.

The four-acre site on the edge of Washington's tidal basin revolves around a 30-foot representation of King surrounded by a circle of stone blocks upon which his most famous speeches will be inscribed.

Dedicating the ground, George Bush said by its location the King memorial would "unite the men who declared the promise of America and defended the promise of America with the man who redeemed the promise of America".

But, he added, "our journey to justice is not complete. There are still people in our society who hurt, neighbourhoods that are too poor ... there's still prejudice that holds citizens back."

Mr Clinton, who commissioned the King memorial in 1996, said it was a physical manifestation of the monument that already existed in the lives of millions of Americans "who are more just, more decent, more successful, more perfect because he lived". He pointedly remarked that: "When the real battlefield is the human heart, civil disobedience works better than suicide bombing, fighting your opponents with respect and reason works better than aspersion and attack."

The memorial, the first US monument to an African-American, is expected to open in 2008. Organisers still have to raise more than $30m of the cost.