page_title: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial
section_title: President's remarks
hierarchical_section_title: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial / Opening, dedication, and administration / President's remarks
caption_attribution_description: English: President Obama makes remarks at the dedication of the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial and from left to right, Vice President Joe Biden; Dr. Jill Biden; Interior Secretary Ken Salazar; and Herman "Skip" Mason, President of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., applaud.
context_page_description: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is located in West Potomac Park next to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It covers four acres and includes the Stone of Hope, a granite statue of Civil Rights Movement leader Martin Luther King carved by sculptor Lei Yixin. The inspiration for the memorial design is a line from King's "I Have A Dream" speech: "Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope." The memorial opened to the public on August 22, 2011, after more than two decades of planning, fund-raising, and construction.
  This national memorial is the 395th unit in the United States National Park Service. The monumental memorial is located at the northwest corner of the Tidal Basin near the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial, on a sightline linking the Lincoln Memorial to the northwest and the Jefferson Memorial to the southeast. The official address of the monument, 1964 Independence Avenue, S.W., commemorates the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
context_section_description: At the ceremony, President Obama's keynote address included the following remarks:
  Our work is not done.  And so on this day, in which we celebrate a man and a movement that did so much for this country, let us draw strength from those earlier struggles.  First and foremost, let us remember that change has never been quick.  Change has never been simple, or without controversy.  Change depends on persistence.  Change requires determination.  It took a full decade before the moral guidance of Brown v. Board of Education was translated into the enforcement measures of the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act, but those 10 long years did not lead Dr. King to give up.  He kept on pushing, he kept on speaking, he kept on marching until change finally came.
  And then when, even after the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act passed, African Americans still found themselves trapped in pockets of poverty across the country, Dr. King didn't say those laws were a failure; he didn't say this is too hard; he didn't say, let's settle for what we got and go home.  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.  In other words, when met with hardship, when confronting disappointment, Dr. King refused to accept what he called the "isness" of today.  He kept pushing towards the "oughtness" of tomorrow.
  
  And so, as we think about all the work that we must do – rebuilding an economy that can compete on a global stage, and fixing our schools so that every child – not just some, but every child – gets a world-class education, and making sure that our health care system is affordable and accessible to all, and that our economic system is one in which everybody gets a fair shake and everybody does their fair share, let us not be trapped by what is.  We can't be discouraged by what is.  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.
caption: President Obama makes remarks at the dedication of the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and from left to right, Vice President Joe Biden; Jill Biden; Interior Secretary Ken Salazar; and Herman "Skip" Mason, President of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., applaud.
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