Noted poet and highly acclaimed author Maya Angelou has a problem with the quote that was carved into the recently unveiled Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial in Washington D.C.
She told the Washington Post that the quote on the 30-foot statue, taken out of context from King’s 1968 sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, changes the original intent of his message and makes MLK “look like an arrogant twit.”
Angelou went on to say, “He was anything but that. He was far too profound a man for that four-letter word to apply. He had no arrogance at all. He had a humility that comes from deep inside. The ‘if’ clause that is left out is salient. Leaving it out changes the meaning completely. It makes him seem an egotist.”
The chiseled quote reads, “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.”
King’s original statement was: “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.”
Memorial planners acknowledged that they intended to use more of the original quote but had to shorten it for lack of space. Maya was part of the memorial’s Council of Historians, in charge of selecting the inscriptions but she did not attend the meetings, according to executive architect Ed Jackson Jr.
She wants to see the inscription change to put it into the proper context for a very good reason, “He would never have said that of himself. He said ‘you’ might say it.”
Photos: WENN