Lincoln Memorial

The Lincoln Memorial at the west end of the Mall is a shrine to the nation's sixteenth president, Abraham Lincoln. It was built to resemble a Classical temple. Lincoln led the U.S. through its only civil war and was assassinated soon after the war's end, on April 14th, 1865. The defeat of the Southern states, which had seceded from the United States ("the North"), ended the institution of slavery in America. John Wilkes Booth, a noted actor and a Southern sympathizer, shot Lincoln at Ford's Theater. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered his "I have a dream" speech, promoting civil rights for blacks in America, from the steps of the memorial.