Photo of the 2025 "I Have a Dream" Inspirational Message of Peace Contest Winners, Honorable Mentions, and Guest Speakers.
NPS Photo
The International World Peace Rose Gardens program is a worldwide effort to encourage youth recognize the importance and value of peace. In March 1992, the Martin Luther King, Jr. "I Have a Dream" World Peace Rose Garden was planted at the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Park and Preservation District. The garden is an artistic interpretation of Dr. King’s life and ideals of peace through principles of nonviolence. The garden’s star burst design uses the Official Flower of the United States, the rose to bring attention to the brilliance of Dr. King’s ideals.
The garden borders the Peace Plaza, in front of the Park Visitor Center. It has 185 roses in a variety of colors and fragrances. The crypts of Dr. and Mrs. King can be viewed directly across the street while standing at the Peace Plaza, facing the rose garden. Each year an Inspirational Message of Peace contest is held where students from local, national, and global schools submit poems of peace for the garden. Winning poems are selected and installed in the rose garden for visitors to view and enjoy.
Over 4 thousand grade school students from Georgia, California and Jinan China created Inspirational Messages of Peace for the contest. The 2025 contest winners recited their poems in the Historic Ebenezer Baptist Church, Heritage Sanctuary, where Dr. King once preached his sermons. The winning poems are displayed on plaques around the front of the garden.
The Atlanta garden is one of five major World Peace Rose Gardens established around the world by International World Peace Rose Gardens. The other gardens are located at other cultural, historical and sacred centers of the world and focus on different aspects of peace.
