Cascades of Freedom flow at San Francisco’ Martin Luther King Jr. memorial

SAN FRANCISCO — When you visit the vibrant Yerba Buena Gardens in San Francisco, you will discover the nation’s third largest monument honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

“You walk into the center of Yerba Buena gardens, there sits a place of peace, a space to make us better people,” Executive Director of the MLK Community Foundation Dr. Aaron Grizell shares. “Dr. King’s life was one where he had to work very hard to continue with his message of justice, peace, righteousness for us all.”

The memorial, titled “Revelation,” features a 120,000-gallon reflecting pool and a majestic 50-foot waterfall.

“You see this waterfall that is rustling down and the stream itself symbolizes what Dr. King’s favorite verse was in the Bible: ‘Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.'”

This serene centerpiece to the 5.5-acre space offers visitors a unique opportunity to reflect.

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“You can walk through that waterfall. You can go inside that waterfall, which symbolizes going into yourself and thinking about justice, peace, thinking about being a better human being,” Grizell reveals.

Inside the waterfall walkway, you can read poignant quotations from Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches etched in glass panels and translated into different languages.

“What those messages and quotes inside that waterfall are created to give you is the opportunity to sort of go inward…” Grizell says, “and that’s the idea behind each and every quote of Dr. King and of those translations into those many languages, because these were what he believed were universal principles that we can all, as human beings, relate to.”

The monument is a powerful place to visit.

“Martin Luther King’s presence will be here in the city and county of San Francisco for all around the world to come see…. they will be able to come here and reflect on Dr. King’s message and mission,” Grizell declares.

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