Picture the Stone of Hope emerging from granite here at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the first Mall monument honoring an African American. It was dedicated in 2011 on the forty-eighth anniversary of the March on Washington.
The memorial's central feature is the Stone of Hope — a thirty-foot carved figure of King emerging from a block of granite called the Mountain of Despair. The imagery comes from King's 'I Have a Dream' speech, delivered less than a mile from here in 1963: 'Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.'
Sculptor Lei Yixin, a Chinese artist, was the controversial choice to carve the figure. Some critics felt an African American sculptor should have been chosen. Others felt the imposing, arms-crossed pose made King look stern — too much like a communist monument rather than a prophet of love. King's family approved the design.
Around the curved wall beside the figure, fourteen quotes are carved from King's speeches and writings. Walk along and read them. They address war, justice, poverty, and the arc of the moral universe.
Notice where you're standing: on the Tidal Basin's northern shore, directly across the water from the Jefferson Memorial. King admired Jefferson's words, even as he challenged Jefferson's nation to live up to them. The sightline between these two memorials is deliberate — a dialogue in granite across a hundred and ninety years of American history.