Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Opens in D.C.

Nine-metre-tall statue opens near the site of the reverend's seminal 'I have a dream' speech.

This is an undeniably crappy day, but there are still distant bright lights flickering in the distance, such as the opening of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., memorial in Washington, D.C. The nine-metre tall sculpture of the civil rights pioneer, located between the Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln memorials along the National Mall, will open to the public at 11 a.m. today. The massive statue, a good three metres taller than the statues of the two men who flank him, will also be adorned by a 137-metre long granite wall bearing 14 of the reverend's quotes. The National Mall was the site of King's famous “I have a dream” speech, where in 1963 King called for a world where children would be judged “by the content of their character” and not the colour of their skin.