Federal Eye: Secretary Salazar considers MLK memorial quote


"Interior Secretary Ken Salazar says he is concerned about the controversy surrounding a quote carved into the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial and that the National Park Service will address it and other issues involving the memorial’s construction after its formal dedication this month.

Ever since the memorial opened in August, critics have blasted the use of a quote carved on to the north face of the 30-foot-tall granite statue that reads, “I was a drum major for justice.”

The quote, pulled from a Feb. 4, 1968 sermon King gave at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist church, comes from a lengthy sermon about the evils of self-promotion.

“If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice,” King told the Atlanta congregation two months before his assassination. “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.”"

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Federal Eye: MLK Memorial quote concerns Interior Secretary Ken Salazar (The Washington Post 10/5)

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