Coca-Cola Donates Land for Civil Rights Museum

The Coca-Cola Co. on Monday announced a landmark donation of 2.5 acres of company-owned land worth $10 million for the construction of a U.S. Civil Rights museum in downtown Atlanta.

Speaking at the Atlanta Rotary Club's weekly meeting, Coca-Cola chairman and CEO Neville Isdell said his company is donating the land to Atlanta as the company found the city, the home town of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., perfect place for such an American museum.

“Atlanta’s reputation as the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement makes it an ideal location for this museum and positioning it in one of the city’s entertainment and cultural districts is a highly appropriate use of this land,” he said.

The museum will be located near the future new World of Coca-Cola and the Georgia Aquarium, which are housed in Pemberton Place. The Place was formed in 2005 and was named in memory of John S. Pemberton, the Atlanta pharmacist who invented Coca-Cola in 1886. It is located across from Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta.

The proposed museum will complement the Martin Luther King Junior Center for Nonviolent Social Change, where King and his wife Coretta are buried, Lewis said.

The announcement, which was made in the presence of a cross-section of local business, elected officials and civil rights leaders, was stemmed from an idea which came from City of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, who in January said a civil rights museum must belong to Atlanta.

Adding to this, Georgia Congressman and Alabama native John Lewis said Atlanta should have a civil rights museum just like other cities that were eminent in the movement, such as Birmingham, Montgomery and Memphis.

Sharing his beliefs with Mayor Franklin that a civil rights museum belonged in Atlanta as key drivers for the Company's decision, Mr. Isdell said, "The Company has owned this land for some time and our position has always been that we would designate this property for the highest and best use for the residents of Atlanta.”

As per the reports, the world's largest beverage company has agreed to lease the land to the city of Atlanta for $1 per year for the development of the museum.

"From their donation of the land for the Georgia Aquarium to financial support for the return of Dr. Martin Luther King's personal papers, our friends at Coca-Cola continue to help us raise the profile of the city," said Mayor Franklin.

Atlanta Georgia based world’s largest manufacturer, distributor and marketer of nonalcoholic beverage concentrates and syrups has often led the way here in changing attitudes about race and has long been involved in the struggle for civil rights. The company has long held titanic importance in taking a stand on civil rights and race relations, whether in its native town or elsewhere in the world.