H
is dream is still alive today in Washington, DC at the Martin Luther King Junior Memorial, which has remained open to the public.
The newest memorial to go down here on the National Mall serves as the first tribute of a man of color and the fourth tribute of a non-president. The memorial was meant to be a lasting honor to the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Junior and it will infinitely remain as a monument to the justice, opportunity and freedom for which he aspired and stood.
More about the Memorial
It is situated along the Tidal Basin and lies on a four-acre piece of land just next to the Roosevelt D. Franklin Memorial on the same bearing with the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials.
The Memorial experience; it remains open throughout the day, or simply put 24 hours in day for all the 7 days of the week. No visit charges. Between 9.30 a.m. and 11.30 p.m., there are park rangers available on site to attend all questions you might be having. After every hour from 10.00 am to 11 p.m., there is provision of interpretive programs.
At the center of the memorial is found the statue of Dr. Luther King, about 30-foot long. His image is nicely carved into the stone and unlike other known stones, this stone is an emblem of Hope, Hope that seems to have been preached during times of enormous monolithic struggle. Besides the stone of Hope, there is found the Mountain of Despair. Both bring meaning to the soul stirring utterances from Dr. Luther, words that have made history; ‘’I have a Dream’’.
Visiting the memorial
The words from the Dr.’s famous speech of 1963 are cut sharply into the stone and can be seen from the visible side of the rock of Hope. All visitors enter the memorial through the Mountain of Despair. They then tour the memorial creating an implication of the struggle that Dr. King encountered in his life. The tour ends in the open freedom side of the plaza. The famed stone of Hope proudly stands in the plaza and at this point the leader of civil rights casts his eyes to the horizon via the Tidal Basin, infinitely motivating everyone to fight for equality and justice.
[photo: www.flickr.com]
