Posted On February 16, 2016
On 4 February 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. preached ‘‘The Drum Major Instinct’’ from the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church. Ironically, two months before his assassination on 4 April 1968, he told his congregation what he would like said at his funeral: ‘‘I’d like for somebody to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody’’ (King, ‘‘The Drum Major,’’ 185). Excerpts were played at King’s nationally televised funeral service, held at Ebenezer on 9 April 1968.