Description:
The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is located on a four-acre plot of land in West Potomac Park along the National Mall's Tidal Basin. The memorial is adjacent to the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial and is the line of sight between the Lincoln and Jefferson memorials. Sculpted by Lei Yixin, the inspiration for the design was derived from a line in King’s “I Have A Dream” speech; “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”
The memorial stands 30 feet high with Martin Luther King Jr carved out of one of the piece of white granite. This piece of the memorial is separate from two large boulders on each side of the piece of marble. On the side of the stone is carved, “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” King is standing tall with his arms folded and facing out away from the boulder that he came. Surrounding the statue of Martin Luther King Jr, is a 450-feet long Inscription Wall that features 14 quotes from various speeches, sermon, and writings of King.
General History:
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was one of the most influential leaders of the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. He became known as a peaceful leader figure through his motivational speeches and his call for nonviolent resistance. He led a March on Washington in 1963, where he gave his legendary “I Have a Dream” speech while standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
Opened to the public in 2011, the memorial is the fourth in Washington, DC to honor a non-president and the first to honor an African American man. King’s college fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha was responsible for the early efforts to build the memorial. After King's assassination in 1968, Alpha Phi Alpha proposed the creation of a permanent memorial to King in Washington, D.C. In 1986, the fraternity's efforts gained momentum, as a result of King's birthday becoming a national holiday that year. The United States Congress authorized the Secretary of the Interior to permit Alpha Phi Alpha to allow a memorial on Department of Interior lands in the District of Columbia to be built, giving the fraternity until November 2003 to raise $100 million. Additionally, in 1999, the United States Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission approved the proposed location for the memorial. A groundbreaking event for the memorial was held on November 13, 2006. The foundation responsible for the building of the memorial estimated that the memorial would take 20 months to complete with a total cost of $120 million. By December of 2008, the foundation had raised approximately $108 million, including the $10 million in matched funds from the United States Congress. Officially in December of 2009, construction began and was expected to take 20 months to complete. On August 22nd, 2011 the memorial was finally open to the public.
Symbolism/Analysis:
In honor of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the address of the monument itself is 1964 Independence Avenue SW. Additionally, as visitors enter through the Mountain of Despair and the memorial has been designed to make visitors feel as they are moving through the struggles for equal rights that Dr. King faced. Visitors end in the opening which represents the freedom of the plaza. The solitary Stone of Hope stands proudly, depicting the civil rights leader gazing over the Tidal Basin towards the horizon or the future.
Arcing around the memorial is a 450-foot crescent-shaped wall which contains 14 engraved quotations from King on the themes of justice, democracy, love, and hope. Cherry trees and crape myrtle bushes were added to the design to promote a peaceful environment for the memorial. It has been said that because of the plain and colorless design of the memorial, it allows visitors to create and relate their own experiences of triumph.
