Turner Broadcasting System gave a shot of adrenaline to Atlanta’s proposed Center for Civil and Human Rights, pledging a $1 million cash donation to cover the center’s pre-development costs. The center, under the stewardship of the Central Atlanta Progress and the Atlanta Development Authority, currently is raising funds to repay a $32 million loan secured to purchase the private papers of Martin Luther King Jr. Turner Broadcasting also donated $1 million to the King papers fund, but an additional $11 million dollars must be raised before the center’s capital fundraising drive officially kicks off.
The project is scheduled to break ground in 2008, possibly on the 2.5 acres the Coca-Cola Company donated to the center last year. The acreage is on the same block as the new World of Coca Cola museum and the Georgia Aquarium. Project leaders hope to open the civil rights center in 2010.
