A historic Memphis church that holds deep significance in civil rights history will receive major federal funding for preservation efforts. Mason Temple, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his powerful final address, has been awarded $1.2 million in federal grants for facility improvements and technology upgrades, officials plan to announce Monday.
The funding represents a portion of approximately $18 million allocated for Memphis historical projects through the congressional appropriations process.
Additional funding of $3.1 million will support restoration work at Clayborn Temple, another historically significant site that served as headquarters for the 1968 sanitation workers strike that drew King to Memphis. That building sustained significant damage from what investigators determined was an intentional fire in April 2025.
Church Of God in Christ leadership and U.S. Representative Steve Cohen, a Memphis Democrat who initially revealed the grant in February, will provide additional details about the Mason Temple funding during a Monday afternoon press conference. The money will support long-term building improvements and technology infrastructure enhancements.
Both churches sit in proximity to the former Lorraine Motel, the location where King was shot and killed on the evening of April 4, 1968. Despite battling illness, King appeared at Mason Temple the previous evening to deliver what would become his final address, the memorable “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech.
During that powerful address, the 39-year-old civil rights leader reflected on his life’s work and appeared to predict his own fate.
“I’ve seen the Promised Land. … 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,” King said.
According to a 2018 Associated Press report commemorating the 50th anniversary of King’s death, those present described how King mesmerized the crowded congregation as a thunderstorm raged outside.
“It’s a tin roof, so that’s banging. There’s rafters up there above us, and the rafters are blowing with the wind and hitting each other and hitting the walls from the fierceness of the wind and the rain,” said the Rev. James Lawson, a prominent civil rights activist.
After concluding his remarks, King collapsed into a chair. Mike Cody, one of King’s attorneys, later described him as looking like a “toy that had the air taken out of it.”
“Ministers, men were crying,” the Rev. Jesse Jackson told the AP in the 2018 story.
Mason Temple was constructed in 1945 after fire destroyed the original structure. The building currently functions as global headquarters for the Church Of God in Christ.
More recently, the temple hosted memorial services in January 2023 for Tyre Nichols, the 29-year-old Black man who died following a severe beating by Memphis police officers after he ran from a traffic stop.
