Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial is a monument in Washington, D.C. The memorial honors the life and work of the American civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Opened to the public in August 2011, it became the first memorial to an African American on Washington’s National Mall .
The memorial stands on the northwest shore of the Tidal Basin near the Potomac River . Towering granite blocks, which represent the “Mountain of Despair,” frame the entrance. A 30-foot (9-meter) carving of King, called the “Stone of Hope,” emerges from a separate granite mass. The titles come from King’s famous “ I Have a Dream ” speech, delivered from the Lincoln Memorial in 1963. King said, “With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” The speech explained the moral basis of the civil rights movement . The memorial also includes a curving wall with quotations from many of King’s speeches.
The ROMA Design Group, a San Francisco-based firm, designed the memorial. The granite blocks were carved in China by the sculptor Lei Yixin. The memorial was built at a cost of $120 million. Private donations accounted for most of the cost. The National Park Service maintains the memorial.
