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Ex-49ers Star Lott Pledges $1 million Challenge Grant

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

San Jose Mercury News — National Football League Hall of Fame member Ronnie Lott’s charity pledged a $1 million challenge grant to help establish a Martin Luther King Jr. Research Institute at Stanford University.

Lott, who was a star defensive back for the San Francisco 49ers, announced the pledge from his All Stars Helping Kids charity earlier this month. The grant will be spread over five years.

Stanford is trying to raise at least $10 million for the project, which aims to create a research institution dedicated to the civil rights leader.

“For several years I’ve been talking about the idea of establishing a permanent institute, and I think it’s rewarding to find in Ronnie Lott someone who very quickly recognized that this is something that had to happen,: Clayborne Carson, a Stanford history professor and the director of the King Papers Project, said in a news release on the university’s Web site.