Martin Luther King Jr. memorial unveiled in Washington

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Martin Luther King Jr. memorial unveiled in Washington

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Monument honouring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. opens in Washington, D.C.

23 August,2011 08:19 am

The new statue honouring civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was unveiled in Washington on Monday the first memorial on the Mall not dedicated to a war, president or white man.Fifteen years after a Congressional Joint Resolution in 1996 to establish a memorial in Washington, D.C. to honor King, the four-acre site on the Tidal Basin between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials opened to the public for the first time.Visitors will walk through two massive white granite halves of the Mountain of Despair to reach the Stone of Hope, from which the sculpture of King emerges. The principles of the massive memorial are Justice, Democracy, Hope and Love.The winning design from an international contest was inspired by the line from Kings I Have a Dream speech, Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. The memorial consists of a 30 foot ( meter) Kings sculpture. On either side of the mountain, is a 450-foot-long (137.16 meters) wall is inscribed with 14 quotations from the famous orators speeches, sermons, and writings.The King memorial faces Jefferson wearing clothes that fade into the granite above his feet. His arms are folded, with one hand holding his rolled-up Dream speech, according to sculptor Master Lei Yixin, who is a Chinese citizen. Im very honoured to have the opportunity to do this great job. Martin Luther King is not only a hero of America, hes also a hero of the world and his pursuit is a universal dream of the people of the world Yixin said through a translator.Yixin and a team carved and assembled the stone and mountain from 159 blocks of Atlantic Green granite and Kenoran Sage granite from North America, as well as granite from Asia.Harry Johnson, President of the martin Luther King Memorial Project told Reuters America is diversified, so when you come and see Jefferson, Lincoln and Washington in DC, its not just one race of people. Its not just these old guys who you read about, but heres somebody who people may have touched, may have shook his hand and he is an up to date hero that changed this country and made this country and now the world look more diversified as a way we see the world.The memorial will be presented to President Barack Obama and dedicated in a celebration on Sunday August 28, marking the anniversary of the Dream speech delivered from the steps of the nearby Lincoln Memorial 48 years ago.King, the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize and the leader of the American Civil Rights movement in the 1950s and 60s, led a peaceful march on Washington in 1963. A crowd of 250,000 heard his DREAM speech at the march, five years before his assassination in Memphis on April 4, 1968.A joint venture team broke ground on the site nearly five years ago, and the Build the Dream Campaign of the National Memorial Project Foundation, $115 of the $120 million needed.The expression of Kings sculpture was created from a collage of images that covered all four walls of Yixins studio. Kings mouth is a grim line, his brow is furrowed and his gaze intense as he looks off into the distance.William Line, from the National Park Service said We couldnt be more delighted, happy, proud, but also humbled about the fact that we are the caretakers of this wonderful memorial.One visitor to the new memorial said she believes King would be pleased if he could see how far the United States has come since the 1960s.