MLK Day: One of Correction and Tolerance

Not long ago, the Internet was ablaze with whether a disservice had been done to Dr. Martin Luther King for the misrepresented quote inscribed as part of his Washington, D.C. memorial. It ignited a debate with some registering it no biggie and others like Maya Angelou rousingly responding in the affirmative and calling for correction.   

Dr. King’s words in question weren’t those partially indicated in the photo:”I was a drum major for peace, justice and righteousness.” What he did say in a sermon was “Yes, 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.”None of us are positioned to minimize King’s verbosity; however, more importantly, context and accurate quoting do matter.   

Thus, I’m pleased that Houston’s own Harry Johnson, President and CEO of Washington D.C. Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation, Inc, saw fit to do the right thing in remedying the quote.   

Furthermore, if CBS’ Gayle King is open to correction by my news-infused friend, Don Dearborn, after errantly quoting Maya Angelou, shouldn’t we all be? See Twitter post below.

On the subject of quotes, the only way I know how to diffuse the sting of the Twitterer who minimized Google’s MLK Holiday artwork by Faith Ringgold is to don MLK’s hat of sagacity:  “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

K. Sweenowitz (@Sweenowitz)
1/16/12 8:44 AM
saw that Faith Ringgold did today's horrendous MLK Google doodle and figured, well, of course a nigger did that!

Often, only one voice is required to set the wheels of change in motion.