WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Barack Obama will speak Oct. 16 at the rescheduled dedication of a memorial to Martin Luther King Jr. on the National Mall.

The ceremony had been set for Aug. 28, the 48th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech. But the memorial’s organizers agreed to delay the festivities as Hurricane Irene barreled up the East Coast that weekend.

The memorial features a 30-foot stone statue of King bearing a stern gaze and crossed arms. There’s also an inscription wall with 14 quotations from his many speeches and writings.

King was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn., in April 1968. He is the first person of color and the first person who was not a U.S. president to be memorialized on the National Mall.

Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.