Park
Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial
Thirty-foot granite figure emerging from a carved mountain, cut from stone quarried on the other side of the world.
0:00≈ 2 min
Location
0:00≈ 2 min
About this audio guide
This guide to the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial follows the pale pink granite carved into his likeness back to its source in China's Fujian Province, and to the sculptor memorial organizers picked in 2007, Lei Yixin, best known for monuments to Chairman Mao. You'll hear about the immediate backlash over that choice, and how Lei kept working anyway, studying hundreds of photographs until he judged the likeness right. Listen for why officials said only that particular quarry could supply the shade they wanted.
This audio guide was created using AI.