Out of a Mountain of Despair, A Stone of Lies

I

While attending Boston University in June of 1952, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. joined the first ever black, inter-collegiate fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha - whose roots stretch back to 1906.  Sixteen years later, Alpha Phi Alpha proposed erecting a permanent memorial to King in Washington D.C after his assassination.  When King’s birthday was declared a national holiday in 1986, the fraternity’s efforts gained momentum and two decades of planning, fund-raising and construction were put into place until the memorial finally opened to the public in August of 2011.  After 20 years of hard work, some claim the memorial to be an embarrassment due to the semi-permanent paraphrased King quotes used for the memorial.

One of the two quotes appearing on the Stone of Hope and attributed to King reads, "I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness," a paraphrased version of King's actual words, which 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." 

A Washington Post reporter noticed the changes from the original speech to the memorial and publicized the paraphrases in an August 2011 column, arguing that the paraphrased quote misrepresented King and the meaning of the 1968 sermon that the quote came from.

Poet Maya Angelou, a consultant on the memorial also agreed with the Post reporter and told the post in an interview last August, "The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit...It makes him seem less than the humanitarian he was...It makes him seem an egotist." She also pointed out, "The 'if' clause that is left out is salient. Leaving it out changes the meaning completely."

According to the project's lead architect, Ed Jackson, the correction of the quote is not a simple matter, as the current inscription is chiseled into granite rock.  Changing the quote will be expensive and possibly not attainable.  “Replacing the quotation is impossible without destroying the entire monument,” Jackson said.  “As the entire quotation will not fit on the monument, the replacement will still be a paraphrase.”  

II

On a recent trip to D.C, five King memorial bystanders were asked their opinions of the paraphrased quotes. 

“Oh, I remember him coming to Brooklyn in the early 60s and his words were just magical, magical!  This is my first time at the memorial and I’m saddened to see the shortened quote…he deserved better than a paraphrase.”

Maggie Jackson, 70, Brooklyn, NY

“Well I was here as a boy when he made the ‘I Have a Dream Speech’ and I’m personally disgusted with the paraphrases…this isn’t what he said and this isn’t what he meant.”

Justin Jones, 65, Washington D.C  

“They are paraphrased?  Really?  I’m not sure how I feel about that…I had no idea.  That seems really ridiculous to me, though.”

Zach Rosen, 18, Jacksonville, FL

“It doesn’t bother me.  I don’t know, I’m young and I wasn’t there for any of the speeches, so to me, these quotes are still meaningful.  They all still resonate with me.  They all still clearly evoke emotions from people who read them.”

Tyler Conner, 23, Philadelphia, PA

“I was here for the speeches on the Lincoln Memorial…I’m deeply saddened to come all the way out here and see that this memorial isn’t accurate.”

Mary Wren, 80, San Francisco, CA

III

The centerpiece for the memorial is based on a line from King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, “out of a mountain of despair, a stone of hope.”  A 30 feet high statue of King entitled, “Stone of Hope,” stands just past two other pieces of granite that symbolize “the mountain of despair.”  Visitors can walk through the Mountain of Despair as they make their way to the Stone of Hope, symbolically moving their way through the struggles as Dr. King did.      

Located in West Potomac Park, against the backdrop of the Lincoln Memorial, views of the Tidal Basin and the Jefferson Memorial lies the King memorial - King is not the first African American memorial in D.C but is the first African American honored with a memorial on or near the National Mall and is the forth non-president to be memorialized with a life-like sculpture.  The official address of the monument is 1964 Independence Avenue, to commemorate the year that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 became law.

Harry E. Johnson, the President and Chief Officer of the memorial foundation added these words in a letter posted on the memorials website in 2011: “The King Memorial is envisioned as a quiet and peaceful space. Yet drawing from Dr. King's speeches and using his own rich language, the King Memorial will almost certainly change the heart of every person who visits.”