^ 'P o rtlan d Observer B lack H isto ry M o n th
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___________________ February IS, 2012
Rlack History Month
programming at Reed is
developed and cosponsored
by the Multicultural
Enrichment Committee and
the Office for Institutional
Diversity.
All events are free and open
to the public.
wwiv.reed.edu/bhm/
SetretatBd watting room at railroad depot, ladisomnlle Florida. 1921 from State Archive» ot Florida
JAZZ PERFORMANCE: " D o u b le I e g a cy P ro je c t"
DARRELL GRANT
I he internationally recognized jazz pianist and composer with drummer Brian Blade,
saxophonist Steve Wilson, and vibraphonist Joe Locke, in an exploration of the legacies
we inherit and those we leave behind.
February 11, 8 p.m„ Kaul Auditorium
________ J i r .
LECTURE: "Race, Racism, and Discrim ination in America"
CHARLES J. OGLETREE JR.
S
Harvard Law School's Jesse Climenko Professor of Law and author of The Presumption
of Guilt: The Arrest of Henry lends Gates fr. and Race, Class, and Crime in America.
February 18, 7:30 p.m., Vollum lecture hall
LECTURE: "Obama is No King: Reflections on Presidential Politics and
the Black Prophet Tradition"
GLENN C. LOURY
Brown University's Merton P. Stoltz Professor of Social Sciences and
professor of economics. Cosponsored by the Walter Krause Economics Lectures fund.
February 20, 4:30 p.m., Vollum lecture hall
LECTURE: "The Warmth of Other Suns"
ISABEL WILKERSON
Professor of journalism and director of narrative nonfiction at Boston University
and author of The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration.
February 25, 7:30 p.m., Kaul Auditorium
REED COLLEGE
Photo by loe Henson
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, 1 » ________________ ______
The National Park Service plans to remove an inscription from the
Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C. and replace
it with a full quotation from the civil rights leader. (AP photo)
King Memorial Fix
Park Service to remove inscription
(AP) — The National Park Service
announced plans Friday to remove an
inscription from the Martin Luther King
Jr. Memorial and replace it with a full
quotation from the civil rights leader, a
move the memorial projects architect
said would “destroy” the monument.
Critics including the poet M aya
Angelou, had said the paraphrase didn't
accurately reflect King's words. It reads,
"I was a drum major for justice, peace
and righteousness."
Angelou had said the shortened
phrase made King sound like an ' arro­
gant twit." She had served on a panel of
historians to select inscriptions for the
memorial before they were hand-carved
into stone, but she did not attend meet­
ings about the inscriptions, memorial
officials have said.
Fixing it will likely involve cutting
into the monument several inches around
the inscription to remove a block o f
granite and replacing it with another
piece for engraving. Officials said it's
unclear how much the work may cost.
The park service may seek private dona­
tions to fund the project.
Removing the inscription now will
amount to "defacing" the memorial or
"scarring it for life" because any new
granite added to the memorial would be
a noticeably different color, said Ed
Jackson Jr., the executive architect of
the$120million memorial project.
"There is no way you can match the
existingstoneandcolor,"hesaid. "It will
continue to age differently, even if you
went to the same quarry."
He compared it to the Washington
Monument, which has a visible line
where the color o f the white stone
changes because construction of the
memorial was halted for years during
the Civil War.
Jackson said he proposed adding
words to the beginning o f the existing
inscription to place it in the context of
King's 1968sermonknownasthe "Drum
M ajor Instinct," in which King dis­
cussed how he would like to be remem­
bered about two months before he was
assassinated in Memphis, Term.
But in the past 10 days, Jackson
said federal officials had decided on
a different plan w ithout any further
discussion.
Interior Secretary K en Salazar an­
nounced the plan Friday to rem ove
the inscription entirely and replace it
w ith the full quotation, w hich seem s
m ore modest.
It reads: "Yes, if you want to say that
Iw asadrum m ajor,saythatlw asadrum
major for justice. Say that I was a drum
major for peace. I was a drum major for
righteousness. And all o f the other
shallow things will not matter."
Ina statement, Salazar said the change
was necessary for the memorial.
"With a monument so powerful and
timeless, itisespecially important that all
aspects o f its words, design and mean­
ing stay true to Dr. King's life and
legacy," he said.
Park service officials consulted with
stone masons and with the King family
in making the decision, said Carol
Johnson, a spokeswoman for the Na­
tional Mall and Memorial Parks. King's
daughter, the Rev. Bernice King, and
his sister, Christine King Farris, met with
Salazar andNational Park Service Direc­
tor Jon Jarvis.
Bernice King thanked officials for
consulting with the familyinastatement
re leased by the park service and said the
"proposed correction" was the right
decision.”
Jackson, the architect who oversaw
the memorial's development for years,
said he hopes the matter will be sent
back to the U.S. Commission o f Fine
Arts for a fuller discussion on how to
preserve the memorial's granite in one
piece.
"The expertise that is required to
even consider this has not been brought
to the table," he said. "I think people are
speculating what they can and cannot
do."
Asked whether there could be any
way to remove the inscription, Jackson
said, "without destroying it, no."