The allegorical assemblages of the Martin Luther King Jr. Monument.
By Kofi Boone, FASLA

Photography by Sahar Coston-Hardy, Affiliate ASLA

I?ve been to the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., many times: day and night, individually and in groups. I?ve sat and watched groups as they moved through the Mountain of Despair sculpture, touched the walls of quotes, and took selfies in front of the Stone of Hope. I have many friends and family who love the memorial. The site works as a linear narrative experience, and it does, in scale, material, and level of detail, mirror other memorials that share the National Mall. Based upon how you remember King, or how you want to remember King, the memorial can inspire or frustrate you. The King Memorial symbolizes the challenges that come from the decision to either be a part of a whole symbolic landscape fabric or to be apart from it. Should a memorial to a civil rights leader blend in with memorials to people that in some cases represent the opposite of their interests and values" The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial opened in 2011 and almost immediately sparked controversies including site selection and the transformation of the original design into its final form. The memorial?s development was rife with the challenges of reconciling competing visions of how to honor the contributions of one of the most famous leaders of the modern civil rights movement. Now, more than a decade later, and in the midst of a disc...