Martin Luther King, Jr., A Drum Major for Justice

...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. I won't have any money to leave behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind. ... If I can help somebody as I pass along, if I can cheer somebody with a word or song, if I can show somebody he's traveling wrong, then my living will not be in vain. If I can do my duty as a Christian ought, if I can bring salvation to a world once wrought, if I can spread the message as the master taught, then my living will not be in vain.

Martin Luther King, Jr. "The Drum Major Instinct," sermon preached at Ebenezer Baptist Church, February 4, 1968.



James M. Washington. A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and Speeches of Martin Luther King, Jr.