The goal of designating a stretch of U.S. Business 60 (Pine Street) in Poplar Bluff as Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Boulevard is moving closer to reality.
Kevin Ellis, from the organization People United To Save Urban America (PUTSUA), and several citizens from the community are partnering with the City of Poplar Bluff to recognize one of America’s greatest civil rights leaders.
The project will consist of a sign placed at each end of Business 60, with a few banners scattered along the route depicting a photograph with the words “Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Blvd.”
“It’s going to be more of a memorial,” Poplar Bluff Mayor Robert Smith said. “We’re not renaming the street, because when you rename the street, all the businesses and people that live along that street have to change their address and that was something that we were trying to avoid. It’s kind of hard to explain it, but it’ll just be like a memorial — it won’t be a street renaming.”
An example is the stretch of U.S. Highway 67 north of Poplar Bluff that has been designated as the David May Memorial Highway in honor of May, a state trooper who was killed in a helicopter accident in 1999.
“The street name and the addresses will still be Pine Street, so nobody’s mailing address would be affected by it,” Poplar Bluff city manager Matt Winters said. “This has to be designated by the Missouri State Legislature, so it has to pass through both the House and the Senate and be signed by the governor, before it’s finally approved. Then if it was, MoDOT would install the signs that Mr. Ellis and his group have raised funds to pay for half of. There would be a sign on each end of the designated section.”
Last week, members of the community and PUTSUA collected $1,600 toward their share of the project and presented it to the Poplar Bluff City Council.
“The agreement with the city was a 50/50 split of the cost given to us from the Missouri Department of Transportation,” Ellis said. “We are still collecting the funds to have the banners created and purchased. We are anticipating that each of the banners will run about $150 each, and were estimating needing about a total of four. We have reached our anticipated goal for the MLK Jr. Memorial Project.”
Still, the designation of Business 60 as the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Boulevard has to go through the state.
“It’s going to happen but it’s got to get everything approved through the state,” Smith said, “even to put the sign up, and the state will actually make the sign themselves, and install that. It’s going to be up to the state as to what type of timeline there is.”
Winters said it will be next year before the state legislature can move on the project.
“We have started discussions with our state legislators this session,” Winters said. “Unfortunately, bills had to be filed and there’s a filing deadline of March 1 for the bills to be filed. And because of many circumstances, that didn’t happen (this year). Hopefully we’ll continue to work with our state legislators and have a bill pre-filed hopefully before the next spring session, so we’re looking at this time next year before it gets to be finalized.”
The MLK memorial project will mean a lot for Poplar Bluff as a whole, Smith said.
“Any type of memorial that’s involving any Black person is important,” Smith said. “It’s important to the community — not just because it’s the Black community, but just to the community as a whole, because Dr. King contributed a lot to the whole United States. … But that is important. It’s very important — and it’ll give a lot of folks a sense of belonging.”
Ellis echoes Smith’s sentiments.
“We do have a Strong Black Community, that has made great contributions to our community — it’s just not openly recognized,” Ellis said. “Dr. King demonstrated to us, that regardless of the obstacles we encounter, we must continue to strive to achieve equality, not only for African-Americans, but for every single citizen disenfranchised or suppressed by the actions of another. MLK Jr. was one of our greatest trailblazers, that provided both aspiration and inspiration for all Americans to strive to achieve. Having a Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Blvd. will expand conversations about the life, the purpose and the achievements of Dr. King.”
Ellis said that the MLK Memorial Boulevard would also be educational.
“Our children, grandchildren, future generations and people unfamiliar with Dr. King will notice the signs and banners, which will create dialogue about his movement, while motivating others to keep the torch burning,” Ellis said.