This fall, Jamie and I took a trip to Washington DC. Not too far from the FDR and other memorials is the MLK memorial, facing the Jefferson Memorial across the water.
This depiction of MLK above is only part of the complex.
This is how you approach the memorial.
The entire complex is very large and impressive with relief sculpture along the walls. I very much recommend making time for it when you're doing your DC tour. It's really very close to the Lincoln Memorial. And speaking of...
2 comments:
Do remember any of the controversy when they commissioned this statue? People felt this communist strong man style of this sculpture (it was a Chinese artist) was inappropriate to commemorate MLK, and I tend to agree. The quote was also a point of contention as well.
When I read about the ongoing controversy over the inexplicable choices being made for an upcoming Eisenhower monument, I have to wonder who's in charge of this stuff?
I guess I'd have to know which people had a problem with the statue and the quote. Pretty clearly when you're at the monument, it's not about some scary overpowering man, he's at the front of a barrier that's been broken open. The symbolism is... not too subtle. And that's okay by me. Clearly people were moved who were at the memorial.
By the time I got there, the quote was removed, I guess. I'd have to go back and look at my pictures, but it seems like all of the controversy was pretty far gone by now.
Architecture changes. Not all of it is going to be Greco-Roman, I guess. Of the monuments I saw, the FDR Memorial was a little surprising, the WWII Memorial less so, but appropriate for the location.
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