What I see: A resolute figure emerging from pink granite; looking, watching, observing.
What I learned: When interpreting at the Martin Luther King Jr Memorial, I prefer visiting during off-hours. Many guests appreciate a daytime visits of course, but in the evening there are fewer crowds. We can take our time observing the landscape architecture, being with the statue itself, and contemplating the memorial quotes without too much noise or too little time. Naturally, most visitors head directly to the King sculpture first, and read the quotes afterward.
One of the quotes features a sentence from Martin Luther King Jr’s final Sunday sermon. It’s the last quote you’ll read exiting toward Franklin Roosevelt’s memorial.
We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.
This quote is from “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” a sermon King gave at Washington National Cathedral on March 31, 1968. The talk addressed a number of dilemmas including confronting racial injustice, ending war, and eliminating poverty. The sermon was ultimately an appeal to resist one’s own inaction in the face of calls for justice from around the world, and to not sleep through a time when one’s action is needed for change.
From design to materials to orientation, the physical elements of the King memorial mirror his life and legacy, including themes from Remaining Awake. Even the long wall of quotes that illustrate King’s journey bends into the shape of an arc.
Remaining Awake was delivered on the last Sunday of Martin Luther King’s life. Before coming to Washington and delivering the talk, King was in Memphis, Tennessee in solidarity with striking sanitation workers, demanding better working conditions and fair pay. Just months before, two sanitation workers named Echol Cole and Robert Walker were killed by a malfunctioning sanitation vehicle, sparking the strike. It was this strike and subsequent uprising in Memphis drew Dr. King to Tennessee. He remained awake for the workers. He refused to ignore this call for justice.
He returned to that call and to Memphis after the National Cathedral sermon. On the night of April 3rd he addressed the workers in a speech which would later named "I’ve Been to the Mountaintop.” It was the last speech he would give. King was fatally shot the next day, on the evening of April 4, 1968.
As for the work laid out in Remaining Awake and I’ve Been to the Mountaintop, King knew he might not have lived to see its full realization. One could argue the realization remains unfinished to this day. What do you think?
Questions I have: Which quotes in the King memorial resonate with me the most? Which resonate with you? What guided Dr. King’s vision of a moral universe? How do the various elements of the memorial relate to King’s life or American history at large?
We explore all these questions and more on our monument tours. Please inquire about setting a date and time for a tour!