Remembering Martin: A memorial for the ages

August 27, 7:07 AMSF Travel ExaminerEd Uyeshima

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Waterfall at the memorial (Photo: Ed Uyeshima) 

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.'"

Martin Luther King, Jr.

Lincoln Memorial

Washington, D.C.

August 28, 1963

As the major media outlets have been informing us, Thursday marks the 45th anniversary of Dr. King's groundbreaking “I Have a Dream” speech, a milestone that brings Barack Obama to the Democratic Convention in Denver to accept his party’s nomination, the first non-white nominee of any major party in our history. With his trademark eloquence, he will likely tell us how far we have come as a nation. This is not perchance, and the road ahead of us is still quite long. That’s why the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is invaluable in reminding us his passionate pleas for racial harmony at a time when such messages were met with derision and death threats.

Quote from a speech given by Dr. King in San Francisco, 1956 (Photo: Ed Uyeshima)

Located behind a spectacular waterfall in the Yerba Buena Gardens, the memorial opened to the public in 1993. Fundamentally, it is an elegant art installation made up of archival photos from the Civil Rights movement and large glass panels etched with excerpts from Dr. King’s most famous oratories in the thirteen different languages of San Francisco’s sister cities. Co-created by sculptor Houston Conwill, poet Estella Majoza and architect Joseph De Pace, it was designed to be a place of contemplation with the cascading water filtering out the ambient noise and traffic. The memorial is flanked by a carved image of King on one end and on the other, an image of the city’s community leaders during the twentieth anniversary of the San Francisco march in Golden Gate Park, which drew over 15,000 people in 1983.

Looking toward the Esplanade from behind the waterfall (Photo: Ed Uyeshima)

Identified as the West Coast’s largest fountain, the entire installation is made of Sierra granite, and the majestic waterfall itself is fifty feet by twenty. The walls that surround the memorial are equally artful in the way they reflect the water, the sun and the landscape. In a fluted pattern with silver fissures, they appear to change color with the changing weather. It opens up to the Esplanade, a bucolic five-plus-acre expanse of green signifying a welcome to all residents and tourists with free performances held year-round for all to enjoy. The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial offers a transformative tribute to his vision of peace and brotherhood. 

The memorial from across the Esplanade (Photo: Ed Uyeshima)

LOCATION & ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: Yerba Buena Gardens between Third and Fourth Streets and Mission and Howard Streets in the SoMa District. Read Bruce Newman's article in the San Jose Mercury, "The Dream Speech II: Obama accepts the nomination on the anniversary of MLK's speech" (8/27/2008).

For inspiration, here is Dr. King giving his "I Have a Dream" speech: