Symbolism: Mountain of Despair, Stone of Hope
Each part of the memorial is significant and symbolic. From the looming Mountain of Despair, To the Stone of Hope which has a 30-foot-high relief of Dr. King rising from it. The striking likeness of Dr. King captured him in a moment of reflective thought, determined and resolute, he is looking over the Tidal Basin toward the horizon. The detachment of the Stone of Hope from the Mountain of Despair symbolizes victory borne from disappointment. The Stone of Hope is the focal point for the memorial. The Inscription on the Stone of Hope’s base is the first lines from Dr. King's historical "I Have A Dream" speech: which he gave during the 1963 March on Washington, “With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope.” Visitors figuratively "pass through" the Mountain of Despair on the way to the Stone of Hope, symbolically "moving through the struggle as Dr. King did during his life. Pale pink granite was used to create the Stone of Hope to ensure that the carving's details would be visible at night, and to contrast with the Mountain of Despair. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial will continue to be a place where future generations of people regardless of race, religion, gender, ethnicity or sexual orientation, can come to honor Dr. King and reflect on how far we have come and how far we still need to go.
The Walls of Inscriptions
A 450 feet long crescent-shaped granite wall contains fourteen quotes from Dr. King's speeches, sermons, and writings inscribed on it. The walls run from north and south. The earliest quote is from 1955, spoken during the time of the Montgomery bus boycott, and the latest is from a sermon King delivered at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., four days before he was assassinated. The quotes are not arranged in chronological order.
The "Council of Historians" was created to choose the quotations, included Maya Angelou, Lerone Bennett, Clayborne Carson, Henry Louis Gates, Marianne Williamson and other. According to the official National Park Service brochure for the Memorial, the inscriptions that were chosen to reflect four primary messages of Dr. King: justice, democracy, hope, and love.
In addition to the fourteen quotations on the Inscription Wall, each side of the Stone of Hope includes an additional statement attributed to King. The first, from the "I Have a Dream" speech, is "Out of the Mountain of Despair, a Stone of Hope" the quotation that serves as the basis for the monument's design. The words on the other side of the stone used to read, "I Was a Drum Major for Justice, Peace, and Righteousness", which is a paraphrased version of a longer quote by Dr. King: "If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter." The memorial's use of the paraphrased version of the quote was criticized, and was This quote was removed from the memorial in 2013.
The following quotations are engraved on the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial:
South Wall
"We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."
Washington National Cathedral, March 31, 1968.
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate, only love can do that."
Strength to Love, 1963
"I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant."
Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 1964
"Make a career of humanity. Commit yourself to the noble struggle for equal rights. You will make a better person of yourself, a greater nation of your country, and a finer world to live in."
March for Integrated Schools, April 18, 1959
"I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America. I speak out against it not in anger but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and above all with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as a moral example of the world."
Anti-War Conference, Los Angeles, California, February 26, 1967
"If we are to have peace on earth, our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Our loyalties must transcend our race, our tribe, our class, and our nation; and this means we must develop a world perspective."
Christmas sermon, Atlanta, Georgia, 1967
North Wall
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly."
Letter from Birmingham, Alabama jail, April 16, 1963
"I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits."
Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, Oslo, Norway, 1964
"It is not enough to say 'We must not wage war.' It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war, but the positive affirmation of peace."
Anti-War Conference, Los Angeles, California, February 25, 1967
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."
Strength to Love, 1963
"Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies."
New York City, April 4, 1967
"We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs 'down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.'"
Montgomery, Alabama, December 5, 1955. Here, King borrows a verse from the Bible, the Book of Amos, which he frequently reused in speeches.
"We must come to see that the end we seek is a society at peace with itself, a society that can live with its conscience."
Montgomery, Alabama, March 25, 1965
"True peace is not merely the absence of tension; it is the presence of justice."
Stride Toward Freedom, 1958