Letter
Dear Mr. Whitesell:
In its meeting of 17 January, the Commission of Fine Arts reviewed the proposed modifications to the inscription on the Stone of Hope within the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial, which was condensed from its full form in the final construction of the memorial, contrary to the design approved by the Commission. The Commission joined the National Park Service and the many interested parties in supporting the third of the presented alternatives, which would remove the quotation from the stone and replace it with striations as proposed by the sculptor, Lei Yixin.
The Commission thanks the National Park Service for its diligence in resolving the complex issues related to the accurate representation of spoken words in national memorials.
Sincerely,
/s/Thomas E. Luebke, FAIA
Secretary
Steve Whitesell, Regional Director
National Park Service, National Capital Region
1100 Ohio Drive, SW
Washington, DC 20242
cc: Peter May, National Park Service
Dr. Ed Jackson Jr., Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation