Standing in the spot where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered what would become his final speech at Mason Temple in Memphis, Church of God in Christ leaders said Monday that the church will receive a $1.2 million federal grant to modernize the historic building. The funding will be used to bring the church’s facilities up to date, while preserving a location that has long been treated as a key site of the civil rights movement.
Presiding Bishop J. Drew Sheard described Mason Temple as a place where the church’s history and the wider story of civil rights intersect. He called it “where faith has always met history, and where the ordinary has always produced the extraordinary,” and said it is “the living witness of a movement that changed the entire world.” Sheard added that the Church of God in Christ will honor that witness “as long as the Church of God in Christ exists.”
The renovation effort is tied to King’s last visit to Memphis, where he delivered the sermon known as the “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” address. AP reported that King made the speech while fighting an illness as a storm blew outside the church the night before he was assassinated on April 4, 1968.
Bishop Melton Timmons, superintendent of national properties for the religious organization, said the federal money will support upgrades including the church’s sound system and other technology. Timmons said the church’s foundation will be inspected, and that structural improvements are planned as part of the remodeling effort.
Mason Temple, completed in 1945 after the original church was destroyed by fire, functions as the world headquarters for the Church of God in Christ. In AP’s 2018 reporting tied to the 50th anniversary of King’s assassination, witnesses described how King captivated the packed church during a thunderstorm, including details about the sound and movement created by the storm conditions inside the building.
At Monday’s news conference, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen and Memphis Mayor Paul Young said their roles in helping secure the funding for the church. Both are Democrats, and AP reported that they worked together to help secure federal support for Memphis projects included in the annual congressional appropriations process.
AP also said the broader package that includes the Mason Temple grant includes $3.1 million for the restoration of historic Clayborn Temple, described as the staging area for the 1968 sanitation workers strike that brought King to Memphis. Clayborn Temple was heavily damaged by a fire investigators said was intentionally set in April 2025.
Mason Temple has also served as a site for later memorials connected to civil rights-era and police-violence history in Memphis. AP reported that the church hosted a January 2023 memorial service for Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who died after he was beaten by Memphis police officers following a traffic stop.