Apart from the Mary Macleod Bethune statue erected in 1974,…there was no true monument dedicated to a prominent black individual until Martin Luther King Jr. finally got [his] in 2011 (43 years after his death!). Even though MLK gained his seat at the table with Lincoln and Jefferson on the National Mall, one could still argue that his statue is positioned in such a way that does not command public space, but is rather a “destination” that one must seek out.