Long-awaited Memorial to Honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Opens Monday on the Washington D.C. Mall

Long-awaited Washington D.C. memorial to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the first non-president and first black to have a monument on the National Mall, set to open Monday.

The national statute of civil rights icon Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the first on the Mall to honor a non-president, is set to open Monday around 11 a.m., nearly 48 years after he delivered his famous and powerful "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Though the 28-foot-tall likeness of King, which stand overlooking the Potomac River, is the first honoring an African American, who led the fight for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s, we must be mindful that his work isn't complete by any stretch of the imagination. We are still grappling with racist elements in our society, high unemployment and high foreclosure rates, and also redistricting lines across this nation that will give blacks a smaller footprint on the political landscape of this country. There is still much work to be done.

The memorial opening Monday will kick off a week of celebrations ahead of Sunday's official dedication. The sculpture stands taller than actual statues of Jefferson and Lincoln, though they are inside larger monuments. The 450 foot long granite wall is inscribed with 14 quotations from Dr. King, including speeches he gave in Atlanta, New York, Washington, Los Angeles and Montgomery, Ala., as well as from his books and famous letter from a Birmingham jail.