Martin Luther King Jr., a towering figure in U.S. history, dedicated his life to countering hate with love and war with peace. During the civil rights movement in the 1950s and ’60s, he was a tireless leader in the struggle to win legal and social equality for Black Americans. King was assassinated in 1968, but he continues to tower—in a 30-foot-tall sculpture in Washington, D.C.
The huge carving is a central part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, which symbolizes King’s life and work in multiple ways. One example is how people move through it. In his historic 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, King said he believed Americans would someday carve “out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” So visitors to the King Memorial pass between large boulders representing a split-apart Mountain of Despair. Then they approach what looks like an immense rock cut out of that mountain. As they move around to the other side, King’s likeness emerges from the Stone of Hope.
Another part of the memorial is the Inscription Wall, which extends from both sides of the Mountain of Despair. Etched in it are 14 King quotations. One, from his “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” reminds us that “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”