Jurors for the competition included Bret Waller, director of the Indianapolis Museum of Art, and Harry Robinson, professor of architecture at Howard University. From a national field of over 50 entries, the jury selected the proposal by designer Greg Perry, a 33-year-old artist from Franklin, Indiana.Diane Penner, The Indianapolis Star, January 15, 1995. Perry's design featured two half-figures—one of King, the other of Kennedy—emerging from solid walls flanking a pathway to reach toward each other. It was an inspired design that captured the historical importance of these two great Americans and powerfully expressed the spirit of reconciliation and the striving for peace people still found in the story of their lives—and deaths. Before the actual construction of the memorial began, a ceremonial groundbreaking was held on May 14, 1994. This event attracted President Bill Clinton, Senator Ted Kennedy, RFK's widow Ethel Kennedy, two sons of King, Dexter Scott King and Martin Luther King III, as well as other Indiana and national dignitaries.
