South Bend Venues Parks & Arts (SBVPA) has reintroduced the brick campaign at Leighton Plaza, the site of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Father Theodore Hesburgh monument.
In 2017, in an effort to bring life and purpose to a mostly unused space downtown, the City of South Bend led a campaign to create a monument at Leighton Plaza. City leaders chose to honor the life of civil rights leaders, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and former president of the University of Notre Dame, Father Theodore Hesburgh.
Today, there stands a monument depicting the famous photograph of Father Hesburgh and MLK Jr. holding hands while singing “We Shall Overcome” at a civil rights rally in Chicago in 1964.
Personalized bricks surrounding the monument can be purchased for an online donation of $150, with proceeds going toward expanding programming for South Bend youth through SBVPA’s Charles Black and Martin Luther King Jr. Community Centers.
Once you make an online contribution, a member of the SBVPA team will reach out to collect the language you’d like engraved on your brick.
For more information, please contact the SBVPA’s Chief Development Officer, Annie Smith, at annie@southbendin.gov or (574) 235-5940.
