Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Lincoln Memorial


The lincoln Memorial is a National Monument honoring Abraham Lincoln. Set at the top of a hill overlooking the city, the monument models itself after a greek palace holding the almost godlike statue of Abraham Lincoln inside. Not only is this monument important because it is a memorial to the man who freed the slaves but it is also a very important site for many early protesters. The water in front of the monument has been the site of many protests as well being seen in movies such as forrest gump and many famous pictures shoe people in the water during protests. One such protest and speech goes down in history as a very famous day. Martin Luther King visited many places but on August 28 1963 MLK delivered a speech that would go down as history as one of the most famous speeches of all times. Although the speech is very long I picked out the last part of the speech because I believe it is very powerful. Just imagine thousands of supportive people with the backdrop of the nations capital and that is what MLK was seeing that day."When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

This video depicts not only the importance of his speech but the location. Being in the nations capital where 100 years earlier African Americans gained their "freedom" from the man seated in his monument silently and motionlessly listening to what he had set into motion.

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