The federal government said it will remove the controversial paraphrasing of a quotation from the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial that some felt made the civil rights icon appear conceited.
On the memorial, King is quoted as having said, “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.”
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But King actually said, “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.”
The government had planned to replace the paraphrased version with the full quote, but it revised its plan to maintain the memorial’s “structural integrity.”
Work will begin as early as February. – Alan Blinder