King Site Works to Attract Visitors

ATLANTA (AP) â€” The guest book at the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic Site reads like a world atlas, with visitors signing in daily from Germany, Japan, Canada and South America. <br><br>But don't

Monday, January 15th 2001, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

ATLANTA (AP) â€” The guest book at the Martin Luther King Jr. Historic Site reads like a world atlas, with visitors signing in daily from Germany, Japan, Canada and South America.

But don't ask metro Atlantans how to get to the site, which includes King's birthplace, grave and his most famous speaking location â€” the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church.

``I don't even know where it is,'' said Mariko Miki, who lives in suburban Roswell. ``I never see any advertisements for it or anything. My family goes to museums downtown a lot, so you'd think it'd be something we'd go do, but we've never been there.''

``Not too much happens around here except around the King holiday,'' said Ruby Williams, who has cut hair since 1970 at Lady Byrd's Beauty Salon in the heart of King's Sweet Auburn neighborhood.

Hoping to increase interest, officials of the site and the National Park Service are trying to make it a gathering place for the neighborhood much as Ebenezer Baptist Church was when King occupied the pulpit. The original church became part of the site after the congregation moved to a new building across the street in 1999.

The park service has started monthly gospel concerts and lectures at the church to draw residents.

Nearly complete is an almost two-decade, $10 million project to restore the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, an effort spearheaded by the King family and undertaken by the park service.

Many of the buildings had deteriorated to burned-out shells, home to vagrants and crack addicts. Now, many of the Queen Anne-style homes that line the block where King was born boast restored wooden porches and fresh coats of paint.

``People here are really proud about this neighborhood,'' said Saudia Muwwakkil, spokeswoman for the visitor's center. ``But certainly we would like to see more interaction with visitors and local residents, to bring the locals out. People here don't realize the treasure we have here.''

The Park Service also plans to team with King's alma mater, nearby Morehouse College, to educate students there about the civil rights movement and train them in nonviolent conflict resolution. The education center could be open by 2002 and will emphasize getting involved in the Sweet Auburn neighborhood, Muwwakkil said.

``There's a universal message in King's work that attracts people,'' she said. ``We want to keep that story alive, expand it here in Atlanta, so people see the connections between King's life and the history of Atlanta.''

The effort to attract Atlantans to the King site is long overdue, Sweet Auburn resident Sam Owens said.

``There are people from all over the world here. This is the center of our history right here,'' he said. ``But Atlanta people, they're used to him. They don't come here. I'd like it more if we were the center again, to Atlanta people. We need to keep it up, show people we haven't forgotten where we came from.''

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On the Net:

King Historic Site: http://www.nps.gov/malu