MLK--Monumental Man

MLK--Monumental Man

The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was a complex man, to say the least. Now he’s a monumental man.

Despised and investigated by J. Edgar Hoover for a variety of anti-American activities, idolized by his followers for his struggles on behalf of African-Americans, held in contempt by Jackie Kennedy, unparalled leader of the Civil Rights Movement, MLK now has an imposing monument on four acres erected in his honor on the Washington Mall.

The controversial 30 foot, 16 ton Chinese-sculpted statue, 11 feet taller than the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials, was 20 years in the making at a cost of some $120 million. It was finally dedicated on October 16th after an earthquake and Hurricane Irene spoiled the planned opening on the anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech.

Another earthquake of controversy ensued following the dedication. Among other critics, some objected to the failure to incorporate reference to God anywhere on a memorial to a Baptist minister and poet Maya Angelou contended the main inscription on the Buddha-esque monument “makes Dr. Martin Luther King look like an arrogant twit.”

The abbreviated King quotation reads, ”I was a drum major for justice, peace and righteousness.” More than twittish arrogance, the words create the image of a drum and bugle corps leader.

In an startlingly frank article on the Dream speech and the monument by an African-American columnist, Robert E. Pierre observes that King might not recognize either the monument inscription or himself today based on that inscription.

Newsday titled the publication of Pierre’s piece in its printed edition, “Let Memorial Stand for the Real MLK.” Online, Newsday re-titled the article, ”Pierre: Recalling MLK the Revolutionary,” a more accurate representation, more reflective of who and what Rev. King really was. (http://tiny.cc/npxa4)

As Pierre points out, the “content of their character” and “table of brotherhood” parts of King’s “Dream” speech were secondary to his incitement to revolution and his ominous prediction that “The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.”

He’s right. There’s not much character content and brotherhood associated with violent revolutions nor in King’s acknowledged Communist sympathies.

Pierre does mention that little-known facet of King’s career but fails to comment on the minister’s womanizing, the reasons J. Edgar considered him a national security threat, or how MLK’s supporters pressured federal and state legislators into declaring the only national holiday honoring an individual American. (Washington and Lincoln were lumped together in “President’s Day” in 1971.)

Pierre does reveal, without apology, that King was more viscerally revolutionary and outwardly radical than most of his contemporary counterparts or subsequent idolizers would care to admit. . . (Read more at http://www.genelalor.com/blog1/?p=5747.)