[2] It covers four acres (1.6 ha) and includes the Stone of Hope, a granite statue of civil rights movement leader Martin Luther King Jr. carved by sculptor Lei Yixin.

[11] Although during his life he was monitored by the FBI for presumed communist sympathies, King is now presented as a heroic leader in the history of modern American liberalism.

The vision of a memorial in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. is one that captures the essence of his message, a message in which he so eloquently affirms the commanding tenants [sic] of the American Dream – Freedom, Democracy and Opportunity for All; a noble quest that gained him the Nobel Peace Prize and one that continues to influence people and societies throughout the world.

[24] King was a member of the fraternity, initiated into the organization via Sigma chapter on June 22, 1952,[25] while he was attending Boston University completing his doctoral studies.

[6] The memorial is located on a 4-acre (1.6 ha) site in West Potomac Park that borders the Tidal Basin, southwest of the National Mall.

"[37] 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.

[4] On this crescent-shaped granite wall, fourteen of King's quotes are inscribed, the earliest from the time of the 1955 Montgomery bus boycott in Alabama, and the latest from his final sermon, delivered in 1968 at Washington, D.C.'s National Cathedral, just four days before his assassination.

[49] According to the official National Park Service brochure for the Memorial, the inscriptions that were chosen "stress four primary messages of Dr. King: justice, democracy, hope, and love.

[39] The selection of quotes was announced at a special event at the National Building Museum on February 9, 2007 (at the same time the identity of the sculptor was revealed).

[4] However, on August 25, the event's organizers postponed most Saturday and Sunday activities because of safety concerns related to Hurricane Irene, which was expected to impact the Washington area during the weekend.

[62] Many other individuals were also expected to participate in the event, including members of the King family; civil rights leaders John Lewis, Jesse Jackson, and Andrew Young; actor Jamie Foxx; and filmmaker George Lucas.

[62] However, the prayer service was moved to the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in northeast Washington after the 2011 Virginia earthquake damaged the Cathedral on August 23.

The National Park Service is honored to serve as the keeper of America's story, and with this new memorial, to have this incredible venue from which to share the courage of one man and the struggle for civil rights that he led.

[66] Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Sheryl Crow, James Taylor, Jennifer Holliday and Sweet Honey in the Rock performed.

Instead he said, let's take those victories and broaden our mission to achieve not just civil and political equality but also economic justice; let's fight for a living wage and better schools and jobs for all who are willing to work.

We've got to keep pushing for what ought to be, the America we ought to leave to our children, mindful that the hardships we face are nothing compared to those Dr. King and his fellow marchers faced 50 years ago, and that if we maintain our faith, in ourselves and in the possibilities of this nation, there is no challenge we cannot surmount.In 2001, the foundation's efforts to build the memorial were stalled because Intellectual Properties Management Inc., an organization operated by King's family, wanted the foundation to pay licensing fees to use his name and likeness in marketing campaigns.

The memorial's foundation, beset by delays and a languid pace of donations, stated that "the last thing it needs is to pay an onerous fee to the King family."

Joseph Lowery, past president of the King-founded Southern Christian Leadership Conference stated in The Washington Post, "If nobody's going to make money off of it, why should anyone get a fee?

[33] It was announced in January 2007 that Lei Yixin, an artist from the People's Republic of China, would sculpt the centerpiece of the memorial including the Stone of Hope, his statue of King.

[77] The commission was criticized by human rights activist Harry Wu on the grounds that Lei had previously sculpted Mao Zedong.

The president of the memorial's foundation, Harry E. Johnson, who first met Lei in a sculpting workshop in Saint Paul, Minnesota, stated that the final selection was done by a mostly African American design team and was based solely on artistic ability.

[79] Human-rights activist and arts advocate Ann Lau and American stone-carver Clint Button joined Young and national talk-show host Joe Madison in advancing the protest when the use of Chinese granite was discovered.

[80] Lau decried the human rights record of the Chinese government and asserted that the granite would be mined by workers forced to toil in unsafe and unfair conditions, unlike that used in the National World War II Memorial, for example.

[81] Button argued that the $10 million in federal money that has been authorized for the King project required it to be subject to an open bidding process.

Or the writer of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech?The way King is depicted with his arms crossed contributed to criticism that he appears stern.

[54][94] Poet and author Maya Angelou, a consultant on the memorial, also emphatically agreed, telling the Post: "The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit. ...

"We sincerely felt passionate that the man's own eulogy should be expressed on the stone", said the memorial's executive architect, Ed Jackson Jr. "We said the least we could do was define who he was based on his perception of himself: 'I was a drum major for this, this and this.

'"[49]  Jackson said the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and two memorial advisers had not objected to the change, and that Angelou had not attended meetings where the inscription was discussed.

"[95] According to the project's lead architect, the correction of the quote was not a simple matter, as the current inscription is chiseled into the existing granite blocks.

[95] As the entire quotation will not fit on the monument, the replacement was still expected to be a paraphrase; however, project officials would not comment on proposed corrections until they were presented to Secretary Salazar.