Aretha Franklin - Franklin Proud And Honoured To Pay Homage To King, Jr.

The iconic activist will be remembered on 28 August (11) when a statue bearing his likeness is unveiled on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Franklin, who befriended King, Jr. in the early 1960s, will sing his favourite track - Take My Hand, Precious Lord - at the event and she's proud to be paying homage to such an important figure in black history.

She tells the Associated Press, "I'm really looking forward to this moment. It's going to be another great, great moment in American history, and in African-American history.

"It means as well, after so many years of travelling with him in the early '60s at the advent of the civil rights movement, that again, many years later, I would perform in his honour and in tribute to him, and I'm really looking forward to that moment and singing one of his favorite songs, his most requested song by me.

"I just think that it is a nod to how far we have come, and what a tremendous spot for him to be him, between the Lincoln Memorial and the Jefferson Memorial on the mall. We've come a long way. I think it's tremendous."

Stevie Wonder is also scheduled to appear, as is U.S. President Barack Obama.