The King’s Body: The Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and the Politics of Collective Memory

This article examines the politics of memory stemming from the development and reception of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial and Stone of Hope statue of King that now resides on the National Mall in Washington D.C. The article discusses two general contrasting views expressed in the contest over how the American nation should remember King. The predominant viewpoint, which constructs King as a haloed, consensual figure, is deployed to endorse the idea that the United States is now in a post-racial era in which neoliberal governing priorities reign supreme. The contrasting viewpoint argues for portraying King as a confrontational and radical figure, who would reject the notion that the United States has achieved “his dream.”