Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

The most recent addition to the monuments on the Mall is the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial. It is the most substantial memorial to a non-President and African-American on the Mall in Washington. Dr. King was the most significant figure in America’s Civil Rights movement of the 1950’s and 60’s and may have written and delivered the most historically significant and well-known public speech of the 20^th century. He was the youngest winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and a U.S. federal holiday was established in his name in 1986.

Martin Luther King Memorial, DC

The monument sits on the Tidal Basin which is the small lake just to the south of the Mall. The statue of King faces the Jefferson Memorial and its back faces the Lincoln Memorial. Cherry trees had to be moved to accommodate the memorial, which are in bloom yearly around the date of Dr. King’s assassination on April 4. The King statue is not looking directly at the Jefferson Memorial, but his folded arms and serious facial expression seem be saying to Jefferson “You said all men are created equal, didn’t you?’

What visitors see when they come to the monument depends on the direction one comes from. Coming from the Lincoln Memorial on foot one sees white “mountains” and walks between them. When coming from the Smithsonian Metro, or from around the Jefferson Memorial side of the Tidal Basin visitors will see the thirty foot King statue and the inscription walls with fourteen quotes by King and “mountain” sculptures behind and on each side of the statue.

King’s head and torso, clad in a business suit, are clearly defined, while his legs appear to be coming out of the stone.  His facial expression is serious, his arms are folded and he holds a rolled up piece of paper in his left hand.

The idea for the memorial comes from the “I Have a Dream” speech. One of the quotes from the speech is “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” That quote is etched on to one side of the King sculpture. On the other side was another quote, “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness” It was determined that since the quote was inaccurate, it was removed in August of 2013. There are no plans to replace it.

The Wikipedia page for the Memorial has an overview of the various controversies surrounding the monument’s creation. This article from The Atlantic in 2013 addresses some the artistic and design criticism.

The inspiration to create the memorial came from the efforts of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity to erect a monument to King. He had been a member while he was attending Boston University. The design by ROMA Design Group, based in San Francisco was selected out of 900 candidates and they chose the Chines sculptor Lei Yixin. The two “mountains” and one “stone” are actually made up of 159 distinct pieces of granite that were carved in China, shipped to DC and then put together on the Mall.

The monument was dedicated on October 16, 2011, which included a keynote speech by President Obama.

Links: Official Site of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
          Wikipedia page for the memorial
          The Atlantic article
          You Tube clip about the memorial