MEMPHIS, TN– Mason Temple, the Memphis church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. gave his last speech, will be upgraded with a $1.2 million federal grant to preserve a cherished piece of the civil rights movement, officials are expected to announce Monday.
It’s part of a nearly $18 million package of Memphis projects included in Congress’ annual appropriations process.
The package also includes $3.1 million to restore historic landmarks Claiborne Templethe staging area of the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike that brought King to Memphis. It was It was severely damaged by fire Investigators say he was deliberately set up in April 2025.
The Mason Temple grant is intended for long-term facility improvements and technology infrastructure upgrades, and more details are scheduled to come at a news conference Monday afternoon by leaders of the Church of God in Christ and U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat from Memphis who first announced the grant in February.
The two churches being renovated are located near the former Lorraine Motel, where King was shot and killed on the evening of April 4, 1968. Falling ill, King visited the Mason Temple the night before and gave what was his last speech, the stirring “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” address.
King, 39, gave an impassioned account of his life experiences and seemed to predict his death.
“I have seen the Promised Land,” King said. “I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land.”
In a 2018 Associated Press story about The fiftieth anniversary of the king’s assassinationWitnesses described how King captivated the audience in the crowded church during a thunderstorm.
“It’s a tin roof, so it’s noisy,” he said. “There are wooden beams above us, and the wooden beams are flying in the wind, hitting each other and hitting the walls from the strong wind and rain.” Rev. James Lawsona prominent civil rights activist.
When he finished, King fell into the chair. To Mike Cody, one of King’s lawyers, it looked like “a game with the air knocked out of it.”
“Ministers, the men were crying.” Rev. Jesse Jackson He told the AP in a 2018 story.
Mason Temple was completed in 1945 after the original church was destroyed by fire. It serves as the global headquarters of the Church of God in Christ.
It was also the location for January 2023 Memorial service for Nichols’ photographsa 29-year-old black man who died after being brutally beaten by Memphis police officers after fleeing a traffic stop.