The completion of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1982 marked a change in memorialization on the Mall. It was built a few steps away from the Lincoln Memorial and was deliberately designed by Maya Lin, its architect, to have its V shape point towards the Lincoln Memorial and the memories embodied there, not just of Lincoln, but also of marches. The Vietnam Memorial has etched in stone the names of those killed or missing in action in the war. It was the first major memorial on the Mall that did not commemorate a president. Other recent changes in the memorial process can be seen in the addition of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and in annual acts such as the unfolding of the immense AIDS Memorial Quilt on the Mall grounds between 1987-1996.

Memorials, and controversies surrounding the building of them, continue on the Mall. Most recently, the Korean War Veterans Memorial was dedicated in 1995 and the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial was dedicated in 1997. The National World War II Memorial is currently under construction. While the physical construction of the Mall is an on-going process, the uses of it as a public space of protest also continue. The Million Man March was conducted on the National Mall Grounds in October 1995 and drew 400,000 demonstrators. In 1997 the right-wing Promise Keepers rally was held on the National Mall, demonstrating the diversity of claims on the Mall. The uses of the Mall continue to grow in diversity but its legacy as a site for protest continues as central in American politics. On October 26th, 2002, thousands across the country protested the Bush administration's plans to wage war on Iraq. In Washington, D.C. 200,000 gathered on the Mall in the biggest anti-war protest since those of the Vietnam War.

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