Much to the surprise of many of Martin Luther King’s family and friends, a misquote on the new MLK memorial in Washington will be fixed – and fixed quickly.
“I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness,” the inscription says. But that bit of pomposity is inaccurate and taken out context. The true quote was “If you want to say I was a drum major, say I was . . .” That’s how King began his statement.
Rachel Manteuffel of The Washington Post points out that the “if” and the “you” entirely change the meaning. To King, being a self-aggrandizing drum major was not a good thing, according to Manteuffel. If you wanted to call him that, he said, at least say it was in the service of good causes.
Manteuffel, one of the first to publicize the misquote, has written a sweetly worded piece for the Post that credits Interior Secretary Ken Salazar with establishing a 30-day deadline for fixing the inscription.
“Things that are etched in stone seldom are changed,” Manteuffel wrote, “especially in Washington, which is not famous for admitting error, righting wrongs, getting things done in a timely fashion, or getting things done at all.”
Friends, family members and historians stepped in to push for the correction. Comedy Central satirist Stephen Colbert noted that the quote was “to the point. Not Dr. King’s point, but still. Brevity is the soul of saving money on chiseling fees.”
It turns out that Colbert’s comic line was nearly right on the money.
After the design plans were approved, the lead architect and the sculptor thought the stone would look better with fewer words. They edited the quote without consulting anyone.
Manteuffel concluded: “How sweet, then, that King can still be giving to us on his 83rd birthday, though he lived for only 39 of them. He can give us this story of many different Americans using their tools at hand — celebrity, media, commerce, satire, academia — to ask their government to right a wrong.”
You can read the story here.
