<p>[The</a> little-known story of MLK’s ‘drum major for justice’ | ajc.com](<a href=“http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/the-little-known-story-1201765.html]The”>http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/the-little-known-story-1201765.html)</p>
<p>The little-known story of MLK’s ‘drum major for justice.
By June Dobbs Butts </p>
<p>I hope to offer a new perspective on the controversy created by the eminent writer Dr. Maya Angelou, who recently criticized an inscription on the statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. The statue is part of the memorial being dedicated today at the National Mall. The sculptor included a quote from the Rev. King: “I was a Drum Major for Justice.” Dr. Angelou feels the quote makes the Rev. King sound uncharacteristically pompous. I believe the quote illustrates King’s dedication to peace, his larger-than-life spirituality and his concern for all oppressed people.</p>
<p>I recognize the zest and fervor behind those words that King truly made into his own. But perhaps that is because I grew up with M.L. (as everybody called him) and I know the story behind the quote.</p>
<p>M.L. and I entered college early and shared sociology classes with a zest for life and a nobility of purpose. In June 1948, I graduated from Spelman College, turning 20 the next week. M.L. graduated from Morehouse College a day or so later, but wouldn’t turn 20 for six more months. We had been told by our esteemed sociology professor, Dr. Ira DeA. Reid, that he had accepted a position at Haverford College in Pennsylvania. M.L. and I had bemoaned the “brain drain” of black professors being wooed from historically black colleges to white universities that offered better pay. Our favorite professor softened the blow by asking M.L. and me to work for him that summer before we, too, would be leaving for “somewhere up North.”</p>
<p>Dr. Reid brought M.L. and me to Haverford for a two-week training session devoted to interviewing skills. We were trained with 25 other young people, mostly seminarians, from around the country. We were assigned to a project interviewing black Baptist ministers in our hometowns…</p>