WASHINGTON – An organizer of the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial is criticizing plans to remove an inscription from the monument, saying the changes will threaten the design.

The National Park Service said Friday it would replace it with a full quotation from the civil rights leader.

Critics had complained the abbreviated quote on the memorial didn’t accurately reflect King’s words or character.

The civil rights leaders’ actual quote was: “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 the other shallow things will not matter.”

When carved into granite on the north face of the memorial’s centerpiece, a 30-foot-tall statue of King emerging from a huge block of stone, the quote was boiled down to 10 words – to fit the limited space available.

The monument quotation reads: I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.

Harry Johnson is the president and CEO of the Martin Luther Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation. He says in a statement that he’s disappointed the King family and Interior Secretary Ken Salazar made a “unilateral decision” to change the memorial.

He says the new plan will “threaten the design, structure and integrity” of the monument.

The project’s architect has taken a similar position, saying new granite added to the memorial would be a noticeably different color.