Ken Salazar, the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, recently announced that alterations will be made to a controversial paraphrase carved into the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.
The plan, which must be submitted to the Commission of Fine Arts and the National Capital Planning Commission, calls for the removal of paraphrase, “I was a drum major for peace and righteousness.” Striations will be carved over the lettering to match the existing scratch marks on the sculpture that represent the tearing of the “Stone of Hope” from the “Mountain of Despair.”
The memorial to Dr. King opened in 2011, and the paraphrase “I was a drum major for peace and righteousness” immediately became a source of controversy because it was taken out of context, complained Maya Angelou, the poet and writer. The wording made it sound as though Dr. King was boasting, Angelou said.
The full quotation, taken from a 1968 sermon Dr. King delivered two months before his assassination by James Earl Ray, reads: “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.”
Work on the paraphrase removal will begin in February, and it is scheduled to be completed by the spring of 2013. The memorial, however, will remain open during the work, but scaffolding will limit visitors’ visibility, said Department of Interior officials.
About 1.5 million people visited the King Memorial in 2011, Carol Bradley Johnson, a spokesperson for the National Park Service, wrote in an email to The NorthStar News & Analysis.
The plan to remove the phrase, not replace it, was recommended by Master Lei Yixin, the memorial’s original sculptor. Other stakeholders also agreed to the removal of the paraphrase.
“While our family would have, of course, preferred to have the entire ‘Drum Major’ quote used, we fully endorse and support the secretary’s proposal,” said Dr. Christine King Farris, Dr. King’s sister.
Harry Johnson, president and CEO of the Memorial Foundation (and a St. Louis native), said they have been working for more than a year with Master Lei and the National Park Service to reach a design solution for Dr. King’s Memorial. The Memorial Foundation was formerly known as the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Foundation.
The organization raised funds and found a site for the memorial on the National Mall.
Reprinted with permission from www.thenorthstarnews.com.
