Posted on May 30, 2020
Today many of us are still Staying At Home due to the global pandemic. But we can still visit the Lincoln Memorial in a virtual way!
On this date in 1922, the Lincoln Memorial was dedicated.
Did you know that a powerful Speaker of the House gummed up the plans to build the Lincoln Memorial? Here is the story - and it's NOT what I expected, so maybe not what you expect as well!
Here is a short, general video about the Lincoln Memorial - including mention of the dedication. It may not surprise you to learn that the dedication ceremony was segregated by race.
Here are some tips for real-life visiting the Lincoln Memorial - when we can travel again!
Just a reminder: some important things have happened at the Lincoln Memorial - like Marian Anderson's 1939 concert on the steps of the memorial - with more than 75,000 people attending in person and millions more listening on radio!!! Anderson had been barred from singing in Washington D.C.'s Constitution Hall, because she was black, so when she sang "My Country, Tis of Thee..." - she was making a statement!
In 1957, around 25,000 people attended a rally at the memorial - called a Prayer Pilgrimage - to draw attention to the lack of progress in desegregating schools and to push for new civil rights laws.
And of course the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom ended at the Lincoln Memorial, and that's where Martin Luther King, Jr., gave his "I Have a Dream" speech. That event included around 200,000 participants and is memorialized with a plaque positioned where King stood.
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| This wasn't an event, but it was a visit by President and First Lady Obama (the two figures entering the temple part of the memorial), with a few photographers and security people in attendance. I found this photo beautiful and also evocative... partly because the people are so dwarfed in size by the statue of Lincoln. |
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