Report: Quote on MLK memorial will be changed

In this Aug. 22, 2011, file photo, The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial is seen in Washington. President Barack Obama is finally getting the chance to speak during a dedication ceremony for the Martin Luther King Jr. The dedication set for Sunday was originally supposed to take place in August but was postponed after Hurricane Irene swept through the Washington region. / File,AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

WASHINGTON - A quote carved in stone on the new Martin Luther King memorial in Washington will be changed after the inscription was criticized for not accurately reflecting the civil rights leader's words.

The Washington Post first reported on Friday the decision to change the inscription, which currently reads: "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness." The phrase is chiseled into one side of a massive block of granite that includes King's likeness emerging from the stone. It became a point of controversy after the memorial opened in August.

The phrase is modified from a sermon known as the "Drum Major Instinct," in which the 39-year-old King explained to his Atlanta congregation how he would like to be remembered at his funeral. He made the February 1968 speech just two months before he was assassinated in Memphis, Tenn.

Video: MLK memorial formally dedicated

In the speech, King's words seem more modest than the paraphrased inscription: "Yes, if you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice. Say that I was a drum major for peace. I was a drum major for righteousness. And all of the other shallow things will not matter."

Poet Maya Angelou previously said the truncated version made King sound like "an arrogant twit" because it was out of context.

A spokesman for the U.S Department of the Interior confirmed on Friday that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar decided to have the quote changed. It's not clear how much the cost of any change might be or how it would be paid for.

Salazar gave the National Park Service, which the U.S Department of the Interior oversees, a month to consult with the King Memorial Foundation, which led the effort to build the memorial, as well as family members and other interested parties. The committee is supposed to come up with a more accurate alternative to the quote.

Harry Johnson, president of the King Memorial Foundation, said it wasn't yet clear what the alternatives might be. The group would look at all the ways a change could be made, he said.

The executive architect of the $120 million project, Ed Jackson Jr., had previously said he stood by the paraphrased line and that there was no way it could be altered. King's words were shortened for space reasons, Jackson said. He did not immediately respond to an e-mailed request for comment Friday evening.

Angelou was named among the memorial's Council of Historians tasked with selecting the inscriptions for the memorial. But she did not attend meetings about the inscriptions, Jackson said. Project planners also explained the shortened quote to the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, which ultimately approved the memorial's design.

At least one other recent memorial has undergone changes after being opened to the public. After the Franklin D. Roosevelt memorial opened in 1997, advocates for the disabled campaigned to have a statue added portraying Roosevelt in his wheelchair. Originally, only one statue in the memorial alluded to the fact Roosevelt lost the use of his legs after contracting polio as an adult. That statue portrayed him seated with small wheels on the back of his chair.

In 2001, a bronze sculpture depicting Roosevelt in his self-designed wheelchair was added to the entrance of the memorial. Disability groups raised $1.65 million for the addition.

[sandy 1027]

I appreciate what Dr. King did for all Americans; and really , the world, in fighting for human rights and equality for all people.

[ccfsdca]

i still say that statue makes him look like a black albino. it's strange. it should have been carved from a dark stone. it's strange-looking.

[texbelle123]

I agree: tear the whole mess down and do it again, this time make the sculpture actually look like Dr King and this time actually quote the man.

Geez. dumb white dudes

[Jesus_Loves_Children]

He Speaks to Me!

I like the statue (speaks of the ongoing struggle), I like his original speech (speaks of modesty and strength) and I love the man (speaks to our hearts and souls!)

[Samlv]

First, everyone top-down who was involved with this needs to be fired.

Second, let's just tear it down and try again, this time with an American doing the work.

Third, new pose for the man, please. Crossed arms are not a good sign, and don't really match what he represented.

Finally, having been alive at the march in Birmingham, and witnessed the radicalization by the Black Panthers, riots there and in Detroit, and his reactions, I'm pretty sure he had equality through self-sufficiency and elimination of race laws, not hand-outs or quotas or blacks killing blacks.

[Samlv]

Typo - Sorry. I think he had equality in mind, not preferential treatment and self-destruction.

[bobnjersey]

[Poet Maya Angelou previously said the truncated version made King sound like "an arrogant twit" because it was out of context. Angelou was named among the memorial's Council of Historians tasked with selecting the inscriptions for the memorial. But she did not attend meetings about the inscriptions, Jackson said. The executive architect of the $120 million project, Ed Jackson Jr., had previously said he stood by the paraphrased line and that there was no way it could be altered.]
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so ... we're talking about spending $120 million to build a huge stone sculpture ... one that will have specific inscriptions carved into it ... ones that some people (maya) are going to very particular about ... for which there were no doubt endless discussions and meetings over a long period of time about every detail ... but somehow ... those who need it to be a certain way ... didn't know that original quote would be paraphrased?

is that what you're saying?

it sounds like the arrogant twit is not mlk ... but all those who have issue w/ this problem that they didn't think was important enough to ensure was right before they started carving stone.

[Dgunner]

If the statue was anything but of MLK.It would have graffiti and gang sign spray painted all over it crack vials and crack pipes spread all around.The fact that it doesn't speaks volumnes about race and respect.

[rwsmith29456]

I didn't know that the inscription was so awful. Maybe it was translated into Chinese and back again to English by the sculpture.

[venusvegasvada]

Much better the way he originally said it.

Why do people have to mess with things the way they truly are?

[bluesky4now]

MLK Jr was a man of passion and a great orator who changed this nation for the better. Not sure this monument captures that effectively, but paraphrasing such a man misses the point. This is a good decision.