We’ve been saying this for years, and we’re not giving up now, particularly on Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Here’s the problem: Charlotte needs to find a replacement for the statue of (supposedly) MLK Jr. in Marshall Park.
The sculpture, which looks as if some arbitrary guy is holding his hand out to check for rain, was created in the 1980s by then-80-year-old Selma Burke, originally of Mooresville and ostensibly the creator of the Roosevelt image featured on the dime. The MLK statue, and I am being very kind here, sort of, kind of looks like Martin Luther King . . . but not really — although, strangely enough, it’s a dead ringer for a guy I knew in my hometown named Hazel Willis. Seriously.
The Marshall Park statue once inspired an unsuccessful effort to replace the head of the full-body sculpture, which, on top of its other distinctions, was named “World’s Worst Martin Luther King Statue” in a book by Jerry Bledsoe, North Carolina Curiosities.
On MLK Day, this is the perfect time for local government to spring for a better statue. It’s simple, really: If you honor someone with a statue, at least make sure it looks like the guy.
This article appears in Jan 11-17, 2011.
I remember the first time I saw that statue. I remember Dr. King. I watched it all unfold on TV from the great white north and had trouble comprehending that this was in fact going on in America.
The statue looks like they had a statue that they didn’t know what to do with so someone said “I know, lets use it to honor Dr. King”. Not only does it not look like Dr. King, it doesn’t even look like a person of color.
It’s definitely time for a do over.
Mr. Grooms writes “this is the perfect time for local government to spring for a better statue.”
I don’t believe that a time when 1500 CMS jobs are being cut and libraries are being closed is a “perfect time” to spend money constructing an idol.
Mr. Grooms, why don’t you take it upon yourself to conduct a fundraising drive?
I’m goign to shoot A video about this giving a tribute to Dr. King using Comedy and Spoken Word… NuffLove.
Is the MLK statute in Charlotte worse than the WHITE MLK statute in DC?