Meghan Mahoney

Martin Luther King Set in Stone: the Civil Rights Movement Remembered: an Analysis of Why the Martin Luther King Memorial Was Built, Who Paid for It and Its Role in American Commemoration Meghan Mahoney

The recently erected Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington D. C. displays a thirty-foot tall likeness of Martin Luther King Jr. Along the way trouble arose in meeting deadlines to raise funds and when controversies surfaced regarding details of the memorial including the engraved quotations and appearance of King, there was great debate and compromise to ensure King was commemorated in a logical and historically accurate way, but also in the way citizens wanted future generations to remember King and the Civil Rights Movement. King was not only the first non-president commemorated on the National Mall, but also the first African American. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960?s is a time that could have been remembered for radicalism, but instead is represented by the peaceful leader. A monument to King rather than the whole movement serves as America?s way of remembering, symbolizing and encapsulating the Civil Rights Movement in American memory based on its advancements won through peace, rather than the violence spurred by hatred.