“A drum major for justice”: Martin Luther King Jr Day

Today the USA celebrates Martin Luther King Jr Day, a federal holiday to honour the man who helped change America (although not by as much as he would have liked).

The civil rights campaigner would have turned 83 yesterday, had he not been assassinated in April 1968.

The Martin Luther King Jr. memorial in Washington opened to the public some months ago and it has recently been announced that a controversial (mis)quote on one side of the monument is be corrected. The quote features prominently on the monument, as this picture shows:

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

King’s original words, from a 1968 sermon at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, were:

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.

Poet Maya Angelou has said that leaving out the “if” changes the meaning and made the civil rights leader appear arrogant.

So what’s your favourite quote from King – what would you like to see replace the faulty “drum major” quote? Any advance on “I have a dream…“?

We are reader supported. Donate to keep Slugger lit!

For over 20 years, Slugger has been an independent place for debate and new ideas. We have published over 40,000 posts and over one and a half million comments on the site. Each month we have over 70,000 readers. All this we have accomplished with only volunteers we have never had any paid staff.

Slugger does not receive any funding, and we respect our readers, so we will never run intrusive ads or sponsored posts. Instead, we are reader-supported. Help us keep Slugger independent by becoming a friend of Slugger. While we run a tight ship and no one gets paid to write, we need money to help us cover our costs.

If you like what we do, we are asking you to consider giving a monthly donation of any amount, or you can give a one-off donation. Any amount is appreciated.