Talk of a memorial in Portland to honor iconic civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. has been ongoing for decades. Even after repeated efforts, and a $50,000 budget, the city still hasn’t hired an artist to design one.

Over the years, the City Council has made several attempts to create a memorial or some other means of honoring King, who was a minister, gifted speaker and community activist who advocated for racial and economic justice through nonviolent protest and civil disobedience.

In 2017, after a year of work, a task force landed on a site along the Bayside Trail near Franklin Street for the memorial. The following year, former City Councilor Jill Duson suggested renaming Franklin Street as Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. In 2020, a memorial selection task force was convened to pick an artist. In 2023, the city set aside $50,000 to build a memorial.

But the proposal to rename Franklin Street was put on hold after about two dozen people objected. The memorial selection task force considered nine design proposals but ultimately selected none of them. And the $50,000 set aside for the project has still not been spent.

“I don’t think anything has happened since 2023. I don’t think we’ve done anything at all,” said Councilor Regina Phillips, who sat on the memorial selection task force before she was elected to the council.

Phillips said she doesn’t remember exactly why the memorial selection task force didn’t pick a design back in 2020, but she said the projected cost of the designs may have been a concern.

FOR THE NEXT GENERATION

A city report drafted in 2008 said more than 600 U.S. communities in 39 states have a permanent memorial for King. There is at least one memorial in Maine — the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King Memorial Plaza at the University of Maine in Orono, which was dedicated in 2008.

Joshua Brister, president of the Maine Black Chamber of Commerce, said it’s important for the city to work on the project.

“I think it’s incumbent upon us as Black Mainers to get this accomplished,” said Brister. “It’s important to preserve, teach and cherish our history so we can pass it on to the next generation.”

City spokesperson Jessica Grondin said that in the years since the memorial project began to gain traction, there have been significant changes to city leadership, which she said may have slowed things down.

“There has been a lot of turnover on the council, we have a new mayor, and all that may have led to some of the delay,” said Grondin.

Grondin said that the $50,000 allocated for the memorial in the 2023 budget remains set aside for that purpose. She said that because the money was designated for the memorial it can’t go toward anything else, no matter how long it takes the project to come to fruition.

Despite the delays, Phillips and Councilor Pious Ali, who have both been involved in the effort for several years, said the creation of a memorial is still important to them.

“This MLK memorial remains a priority,” Ali wrote in an email. “I look forward to working closely with Mayor (Mark) Dion, Councilor Phillips and other key stakeholders this year to move this forward.”

Ali went on to say that the next step for the project is for it to be brought before the Public Art Commission.

The commission has not yet scheduled a time to talk about the memorial, according to agenda posted on the city’s website.