25 years in the making and the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington D.C. has finally been revealed!! This is so cool and definitely a must-see! (but I’m going to wait until Spring when it’s surrounded by the beautiful Cherry Blossoms) Hit the jump to see photos and to read more about the memorial!
(DailyMail)–His statue has been 25 years in the making and is set to be unveiled on the very site where his most famous words inspired generations of Americans.
Now the long-awaited statue of Martin Luther King Jr has finally been revealed on the National Mall in Washington, DC, where the civil rights leader made his iconic ‘I Have a Dream’ address.
The giant 30ft statue – the first on the Mall to honour a non-U.S. president – sits in a direct line between existing memorials dedicated to Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson.
It was revealed during a low-key opening at 11am in the U.S. capital, ahead of a week of celebrations before Sunday’s official dedication
As well as the massive sculpture of Dr King himself, the memorial also features a 450ft-long granite wall inscribed with 14 of his most memorable quotations.
Visitors to the memorial reach the likeness of Dr King by walking through an ‘entry portal’ of two large stones with a gap inbetween.
The third stone, bearing Luther King’s image, sits further forward on the plaza near to inscribed text which includes another quote from the civil rights leader: ‘Out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope’.
Designers say the main stone was thrust forward into the plaza in order to symbolise the ‘signs of a great monolithic struggle’ which Dr King endured in his life.
The official dedication to the statue will take place on August 28 this year, the 48th anniversary of his historic speech.
President Obama is due to speak at the event in six days time.
The sheer size of the sculpture of Dr King sets it apart from nearby statues of Jefferson and Lincoln, which are both about 20ft (6m) tall, though inside larger monuments.
Jefferson and Lincoln – both of who appear in the famous Mount Rushmore sculpture – are widely regarded of two of the greatest ever leaders of the U.S.
The former was a Founding Father of America and author of the Declaration of Independence, while the latter is renowned for leading America through possibly its greatest ever crisis – the Civil War – by restoring the Union and ending slavery.
Martin Luther King, Jr is seen by many as a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism.
His tireless and impassioned campaigning in the African American civil rights movement lead to the ending of racial segregation and racial discrimination.
A panel of scholars chose the engraved quotations from speeches by King in Atlanta, New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Montgomery, Ala., as well as from King’s books and his letter from a Birmingham, Alabama, jail.
One of the stone engravings reads: ‘We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’
The National Mall site will be surrounded with cherry trees that will blossom in pink and white in the spring.
