Maya Angelou says King memorial inscription makes him look ‘arrogant’ – The Washington Post

The sermon was so powerful that the designers of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington selected those lines to be inscribed on the memorial’s towering statue of the civil rights leader.

But because of a design change during the statue’s creation, the exact quotes had to be paraphrased, and now one of the memorial’s best-known consultants, poet and author Maya Angelou, says the shortened inscription is misleading and ought to be changed.

Carved on the north face of the 30-foot-tall granite statue, the inscription reads: I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.

“The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit,” Angelou, 83, said Tuesday. —Maya Angelou says King memorial inscription makes him look ‘arrogant’ – The Washington Post.

Post was last modified on 13 Jan 2012 9:33 pm

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Dennis G. Jerz