Plans are underway in the nation’s capital to erect a monument in memory of the most widely known civil rights icons, Dr. Martin L. King Jr.
Plans are underway in the nation’s capital to erect a monument in memory of the most widely known civil rights icons, Dr. Martin L. King Jr.
To date, more than $100 million has been raised to create the four-acre memorial, which will be set juxtaposed to the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials on the National Mall, and will include a stone sculpture of King–called the Stone of Hope–and at least two dozen niches that commemorate other standouts of one of the most volatile racial times in the nation’s history.
Known as much for his oratory deftness as for his advocacy of non-violence, the MLK Memorial will also include inscribed quotes from King’s speeches and sermons.
The memorial will utilize lighting, stone and water to create a mood that evokes introspection and captures the spirit of the man called the drum major for justice.
King, a Nobel Prize winner for his peaceful and non-violent approach to resolving racial injustices against Black people, was felled in 1968 by a sniper’s bullet. The national memorial to him has been more than two decades in the making.
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