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Historytoday.com - This Sunday, August 28th, the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial will be inaugurated in Washington DC on the 48th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, when King delivered his historic ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. The effort to build the memorial took over 25 years. The story of its creation is complex and marred with controversy.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial is situated on the National Mall in Washington DC on the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin. Its address is 1964 Independence Avenue in reference to the 1964 Voting Rights Act, which King played a key role in achieving. It is surrounded by 182 cherry blossom trees which will blossom every April on the anniversary of King’s death.
The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial is situated on the National Mall in Washington DC on the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin. Its address is 1964 Independence Avenue in reference to the 1964 Voting Rights Act, which King played a key role in achieving. It is surrounded by 182 cherry blossom trees which will blossom every April on the anniversary of King’s death.
The design of the monument is inspired by a quote from King’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech: ‘out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope’. It consists of a granite boulder, which is split into two stones inscribed with 14 quotes from King’s most famous speeches and sermons. A sculpture of King emerges from the missing piece of the boulder, which is pushed forward and symbolises the ‘stone of hope’.
The idea to build a memorial was first suggested in 1984 by Alpha Phi Alpha, the African-American fraternity of which King was a member. Congress authorised the memorial in 1996, and two years later, a foundation was set up to raise the $120 million (approximately £73 million) necessary for its construction. An international design competition was launched in 1999, which yielded over 900 entries from 52 countries. Submissions were judged by a panel of 11 architecture and fine arts professionals from China, France, Mexico, India and the United States.
The design submitted by ROMA Design Group, an architecture firm based in San Francisco, was eventually selected and the Chinese artist Lei Yixin was chosen to carve the image of Martin Luther King in the ‘stone of hope’. However, the decision caused significant controversy: some argued that a black American artist should have been chosen and Lei Yixin was criticised because his public works include more than a dozen icons of Mao Zedong. In 2008, the US Commission of Fine Arts argued that the style of the colossal statue was too stern and confrontational, and the announcement that the memorial would be carved in Chinese granite rather than American stone met further criticism.
The memorial will be nevertheless be inaugurated this weekend. It is the first on the National Mall to honour a man of peace and a man of colour.
Further information about the memorial is available on the Martin Luther King National Memorial website, including photos of the memorial at various stages during its construction, a virtual tour and information on its design, construction and the events organised to mark the inauguration.
How accurately, however, does the memorial represent the achievements of Martin Luther King? In Martin Luther King’s Half-Forgotten Dream Peter Ling argues that by adulating King for his work in the Civil Rights campaigns we have misrepresented the complexity of those struggles and ignored some of the equally challenging campaigns of his last years.
In Recording the Dream Brian Ward reveals some of King's little-known experiences as a recording artist.
The idea to build a memorial was first suggested in 1984 by Alpha Phi Alpha, the African-American fraternity of which King was a member. Congress authorised the memorial in 1996, and two years later, a foundation was set up to raise the $120 million (approximately £73 million) necessary for its construction. An international design competition was launched in 1999, which yielded over 900 entries from 52 countries. Submissions were judged by a panel of 11 architecture and fine arts professionals from China, France, Mexico, India and the United States.
The design submitted by ROMA Design Group, an architecture firm based in San Francisco, was eventually selected and the Chinese artist Lei Yixin was chosen to carve the image of Martin Luther King in the ‘stone of hope’. However, the decision caused significant controversy: some argued that a black American artist should have been chosen and Lei Yixin was criticised because his public works include more than a dozen icons of Mao Zedong. In 2008, the US Commission of Fine Arts argued that the style of the colossal statue was too stern and confrontational, and the announcement that the memorial would be carved in Chinese granite rather than American stone met further criticism.
The memorial will be nevertheless be inaugurated this weekend. It is the first on the National Mall to honour a man of peace and a man of colour.
Further information about the memorial is available on the Martin Luther King National Memorial website, including photos of the memorial at various stages during its construction, a virtual tour and information on its design, construction and the events organised to mark the inauguration.
How accurately, however, does the memorial represent the achievements of Martin Luther King? In Martin Luther King’s Half-Forgotten Dream Peter Ling argues that by adulating King for his work in the Civil Rights campaigns we have misrepresented the complexity of those struggles and ignored some of the equally challenging campaigns of his last years.
In Recording the Dream Brian Ward reveals some of King's little-known experiences as a recording artist.
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