A Memorial Fit for a King Opens in Washington

25 August 2011

Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial on the National Mall in Washington

DOUG JOHNSON: Welcome to AMERICAN MOSAIC in VOA Special English. I’m Doug Johnson. Today on our show, we play new music from Jay-Z and Kanye West. We also answer a question about Martin Luther King, Jr. And we tell about a memorial honoring the civil rights leader.

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Martin Luther Memorial

DOUG JOHNSON: A memorial to honor Martin Luther King opened to the public this week in Washington, DC. President Obama will lead an official dedication ceremony at the memorial on Sunday, August twenty-eighth.

Sunday marks the forty-eighth anniversary of an historic protest in Washington. On that day, Martin Luther King gave his famous “I Have a Dream” speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.

Martin Luther King Jr. gave his "I Have a Dream" speech to hundreds of thousands of marchers gathered at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963

MARTIN LUTHER KING: “I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.’ I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood. I have a dream.”