Memorials: The Journey to Civil Rights

“We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” declared Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. By the time you read that quote at the conclusion of this walk you will have encountered the author of the Declaration of Independence, drafter of the country’s first bill of rights, the champion of the New Deal and the woman helped author the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For two weeks each spring the Tidal Basin glows with a pink-white hue of thousands of Japanese cherry trees. Yet once the glory of the blossoms has vanished the memorials around this manmade body of water continue to resonate with the American principles of independence, equal rights, and justice. Trace the evolution of the U.S. Civil Rights movement through up-close encounters with Thomas Jefferson Memorial, George Mason Memorial, Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial, Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial plus views of the Washington Monument.