The King Memorial: Dreams at Odds

Since 1968, after the death of Martin Luther King Jr.there have been suggestions of a King memorial and now in 2007 almost forty years later a sculpture of King is finally taking shape. Unfortunately there is controversy that accompanies this stone statue. Critics have been complaining now for several months about the selection of the sculptor who has designed the statue. His talent is not in question but rather his ethnicity. Lei Yixin is the Chinese sculptor who was chosen to carve Dr. King's statue. There is concern that a man such as Mr. King who fought for the rights of African-Americans should have a sculpture in his honor created by an African-American. One black sculptor Ed Dwight, is concerned about the misinterpretation of Dr. King as a black man. He says about Mr. Lei that, "He doesn't know how black people walk, how they stand, how their shoulders slope." Dr. King's ideas have of course been invoked to support both sides. His insistence on equal opportunity for black Americans as well as his exhortations to judge people not “by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

Since 1886 the statue of liberty has stood in New York Harbour. It is a symbol of freedom in America. Many people forget that it was given to the united state by France as a symbol of friendship. It was designed by French sculptor Frederic Auguste Bartholdi and funded completely through donations from the French people. After Bartholdi finalized the design in miniature, The statue was created by Gustave Eiffel who later built the Eiffel Tower. This was also controversial at the time that Lady Liberty was rebuilt in New York Harbor after her voyage over the Atlantic ocean. Many people opposed having such a large sculpture representing the country only because it wasn't a USA original. This is now overlooked 120 years later, but created a lot of controversy just as Martin Luther King Jr.'s statue is doing now.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/24/arts/design/24statue.html?_r=1&ref=us