MEMPHIS, TENN. — Mason Temple, a Memphis church where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his final speech, will receive a $1.2 million federal grant for long-term facility improvements and technology infrastructure upgrades. Leaders of the Church of God in Christ and U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen are scheduled to announce details of the grant at a Monday afternoon news conference.

The $1.2 million allocation is part of a nearly $18 million package for Memphis projects in the annual congressional appropriations process. That package also includes $3.1 million for the restoration of Clayborn Temple, which was heavily damaged by a fire that investigators say was intentionally set in April 2025.

Mason Temple serves as the world headquarters for the Church of God in Christ. The building was completed in 1945 following the destruction of the original church by fire.

The temple's place in American history is tied to the 1968 sanitation workers' strike in Memphis, which brought King to the city. On the night before his assassination, King visited Mason Temple and delivered his "I've Been to the Mountaintop" address. "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 those words on April 3, 1968.

King was fatally shot the following evening, April 4, 1968, at the former Lorraine Motel. Both Mason Temple and Clayborn Temple are located near the motel site. Clayborn Temple served as the staging area for the sanitation workers' strike that had drawn King to Memphis.

In January 2023, the temple was the site of a memorial service for Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who died after he was beaten by Memphis police officers following his flight from a traffic stop.