Memorials: The Journey to Civil Rights

For two weeks each spring the National Mall's Tidal Basin glows with a pink-white hue of thousands of Japanese cherry trees. Once the glory of the blossoms has vanished, however, the memorials around this manmade body of water continue to resonate with the American principles of independence, equality, and justice.

Yet those principles of democracy have not always defined the experience of all Americans. “We shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice,” declared Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1967. By the time you read that quote at the conclusion of this walk, you will have explored memorials honoring the author of the Declaration of Independence, drafter of the country’s first bill of rights, and the champion of the New Deal and considered how these sites address the often frustrating disconnect between stated principles and the lived reality that sparked the journey to civil rights. 

Trace the evoluation of the Civil Rights movement in the U.S. through up-close encounters with

                                           - the Thomas Jefferson Memorial,

                                           - George Mason Memorial,

                                           - Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial,

                                           - Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial,

                                            plus views of the Washington Monument.

Discover more great D.C. walking tour adventures: Women Who Changed America and Memorials: Remembrances of War