WASHINGTON, DC – The Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) has donated more than $2 million, and its co-President Andreas Dracopoulos made a personal donation exceeding $1 million for the Reflection Area of the National African American Museum of History & Culture, in Washington, DC, to be named after Archbishop Iakovos.

Dracopoulos told TNH that he and SNF made the donations in Iakovos name, “who dared under very difficult conditions of that time to march alongside Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (in the 1965 Selma, AL civil rights march).

That the Iakovos area will be a place for reflection “should make us reflect where we are as a community,” Dracopoulos added, regarding Greek-Americans and Greece.

LIFE Magazine captured the iconic image of Iakovos and King marching side-by-side on its March 26, 1965 cover. That image was digitally displayed on an oversized screen on the Museum’s outside wall on November 16. The Museum broke ground, at 1400 Constitution Avenue in DC’s NW section, in February, 2012, and is expected to be open this coming spring.

Part of the Smithsonian, this museum will be a prominent place of exhibition for African-American history and culture, and it will also be a centerpiece venue for ceremonies and performances.

A photograph of the Iakovos/King image captured on the Museum’s large screen was featured on the front page of the November 17 edition of the Washington Post. The movie Selma (2014), about the historic marches, also paid homage to Iakovos’ answer to Dr. King’s call to join him in the effort.