Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s words from "I Have a Dream" proclaim faith in turning despair into hope, discord into brotherhood, and shared struggle into freedom. A granite Inscription Wall, about 500 feet long, arcs on either side of the Mountain of Despair and is engraved with his speeches and writings embodying love, justice, democracy and hope. Lei Yixin's Stone of Hope features a 28-foot-tall statue of King emerging from granite, reached through the Mountain of Despair, a massive boulder symbolizing the struggle for peace and equality from which a piece has been removed and thrust into the open plaza. The site stands on a direct line between the Lincoln Memorial, where King delivered his 1963 "I Have a Dream" speech during the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, and the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, toward which his statue gazes across the Tidal Basin and the promise of freedom in the Declaration of Independence. King's legacy is presented as love, justice, democracy and hope. The Washington, D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc. was established on May 28, 1998, to coordinate the memorial's development, funding and construction on the National Mall, and President William Jefferson Clinton signed a Joint Congressional Resolution authorizing its building on July 16, 1998.

Arlington, Virginia · United States