Angelou Says MLK Memorial Change Makes Him Look Like "Arrogant Twit"

[Black King]

Maya Angelou on MLK Memorial: Says paraphrase makes King look like an arrogant twit.

Maya Angelou has a beef with the designers of the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. She says that a decision to paraphrase one of the two quotes that appear on the statue makes the civil rights icon look like “an arrogant twit.”

King delivered the full quote in question on Feb, 1968, two months before he was assassinated. “If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice,” King told the congregation at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church. “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 late design change to the new monument that swapped the location of that quote with the other on the 30-foot-tall granite statue, however, forced the famous lines to be shortened to fit on the statue’s north side, the Washington Post reports. The inscription reads only: I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.

“The quote makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit,” Angelou said Tuesday. “He was anything but that. He was far too profound a man for that four-letter word to apply.”

Angelou said that the paraphrase “minimizes the man” and “makes him seem like an egotist,” and that it should be changed to put it into context. “The ‘if’ clause that is left out is salient,” she said. “Leaving it out changes the meaning completely.”

The inscription on the statue’s south face reads: Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope. That line was originally planned for the north face of the statue, but was moved to the south side because it is the main theme of the memorial and designers wanted it to be on the side that visitors see first.

The memorial’s executive architect, Ed Jackson Jr., said that he ran the decision by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, as well as other historical advisers, and that no one had a problem with it.

“I think it’s rather small of folks to pick at things,” he told the Post. “This has been going on for 14 years, and all of them have had plenty of time to add their thoughts and ideas.”

 

[Persephone]

Why would they paraphrase a quote of his? The status is big enough to put the whole thing on lol. That's just dumb in my opinion.

 

[Karma]

Ed Jackson Jr. is a moron & doesnt get it. You dont memorialize someone w/ something THEY DIDNT SAY! paraphrasing is NOT quoting. What part of that doesnt he understand? so does this mean that architects & the like (aka "right brained ppl" who are characterized as highly analytical, less included for words & all around assholes) really ARE assholes? LOL

Maya Angelou was VERY close to Dr. King. They had a mutual respect & bond of friendship between them to the point that after his death, she stopped celebrating her own birthday & instead on that day would send a bouquet of flowers to his widow every year until her passing several years ago. If anyone would be qualified to CRITIQUE this (especially before it was inscribed on the memorial) it would be her.