MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Standing in the spot where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his final speech at the Mason Temple in Memphis, Church of God in Christ leaders said Monday that a $1.2 million federal grant will be used to modernize the treasured piece of the Civil Rights Movement.
Located near the former Lorraine Motel, where King was fatally shot on the evening of April 4, 1968, Mason Temple is the site of King’s stirring sermon known as the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” address. Fighting an illness, King made the speech as a storm blew outside the church the night before he was assassinated.
Presiding Bishop J. Drew Sheard, who was joined at a news conference by U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and Memphis Mayor Paul Young, called the church a place “where faith has always met history, and where the ordinary has always produced the extraordinary.”
“It is the living witness of a movement that changed the entire world,” Sheard said. “As long as the Church of God in Christ exists, we will honor that witness.”
Bishop Melton Timmons, superintendent of national properties for the religious organization, said the funding will be used to upgrade the church’s sound system and other technology. Timmons said the church’s foundation will be inspected, and structural improvements also are planned for the remodeling effort.
The Mason Temple was completed in 1945 following the destruction of the original church by fire. Today, the church serves as the world headquarters for the Church of God in Christ.
Cohen and Young, both Democrats, w …
