Martin Luther King, Jr. was an extremely influential figure in American history who made great strides for the civil rights movement and granting more rights to African Americans. He is a prominent figure in the US and will live on in history for his influence during the Civil Rights Movement and for his role in ending legal segregation in the United States. In case you were not able to get out on this day of service to honor one of our most prominent leaders and activists or attend any events in the nation’s capital this weekend, we want to inform you on how you can continue to honor MLK all year round at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC.
Honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
Located in downtown DC along the Tidal Basin, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial sits on Independence Ave SW near the Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument. If you’re headed to the National Mall in DC, you definitely want to check out the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. The memorial’s address is 1964 Independence Avenue SW, and this street number references the year that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became a law in the United States. The memorial was officially dedicated to Martin Luther King, Jr. on August 28th, 2011, the anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.
Standing at 30 feet tall, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is a spectacular site that you must see in person. It is also the first monument on the National Mall not dedicated to a white person or a war. It is truly a sight to behold. The design of the memorial is a grand statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. carved beautifully into stone to depict his image emerging from a mountainside. The inspiration for the design of the statue comes from the quotation “Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope” from Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech in Washington, DC in 1968. The stone with the statue carving is depicted as a slice pulled from a mountain, symbolizing the stone of hope from the mountain of despair. There are incredible details like scrape marks on the edges to symbolize the struggle to create change as well as an engraving with this quotation.
We strongly encourage you to plan your trip to visit the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington, DC. To read more about the memorial, the National Park Service page dedicated to the MLK Memorial has useful information and links. To book a tour for a fun and educational way to learn more about Washington, DC and the monuments, as well as the opportunity to customize your tour and which sites you visit, click here. For more information about the building of the memorial, be sure to visit the page dedicated to the memorial’s design here. To get more involved, consider volunteering at the National Mall and visiting the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial.