MLK Monument

I’m a big, big fan of our monuments in Washington, DC, and my favorite one is the Jefferson Memorial. As soon as we get to DC, we’re heading over to the new Martin Luther King Jr Memorial, but there’s been some very heated exchanges about this monument. Maya Angelou thinks one of the sets of lines makes Martin sound arrogant. The executive architect has now come and said they’re not changing it. I suppose no memorial ever does full justice, but I suspect over time this will become to Americans what the Viet Nam Memorial and the WWII Memorial have become: a place to create memories.

I have to say when I heard they had paraphrased ML King, I wanted to see the real words … and then I heard them on TV … and I thought, “Fair enough.” He was that kind of drum major.

What are your thoughts? Anyone been there yet?

WASHINGTON (AP) – The executive architect of the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington says an inscription on the monument won’t be changed, despite criticism from poet Maya Angelou that it makes King sound arrogant.

Ed Jackson Jr. tells The Washington Post he stands by the paraphrased line from King’s “drum major” sermon in 1968.

King said, “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.”

The shortened version reads: “I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.”

Jackson says the line has historical perspective and allows King to define himself. He says there is no way it can be altered.