Photo by MichaelTRuhl

In late August, the public expressed outrage when the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial was unveiled with a crudely paraphrased quote inscribed on its side. Now, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar is weighing in, saying that he’s concerned enough about the controversy surrounding the quote that the National Park Service will address it after its formal dedication next weekend.

The inscription carved into the memorial reads, “I was a drum major for justice.” But as Ed O’Keefe noted in the Washington Post this week, the full quote was pulled from a Feb. 4, 1968 sermon King gave on the evils of self-promotion:

“If you want to say that I was a drum major, say that I was a drum major for justice,” King told the Atlanta congregation two months before his assassination. “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.”