LET’S BEGIN WITH THE end in mind by asking some pivotal questions.    Is the Martin Luther King, Jr. statue that the National Memorial Project Foundation is going to unveil in 2009 accurate?  Is it representative of Dr. King?  My research indicates no on both counts because of five major fatal flaws: the pose, the hands, the copying, the process, and the model. 

  For example…                             there is something wrong with this picture (see Washington Post, 8-15-07)… and it has nothing to do with the sculptor being Chinese or replacing an African American Sculptor of Record!  Hint:  look at the crossed arms and the pen.

FATAL FLAW #1:  The WORK IS NOT ORIGINAL!  The clay model that sculptor Lei Yixin presented in February 2007 which was ultimately approved by the Executive Architect and other members of the National Memorial Project was a pose that was rejected in 2003 by the town of Rocky Mount, North Carolina where Dr. King visited in 1962 and said, “Rocky Mount, I have a dream tonight.”  Only recently (May 2007) has the statue been taken out of a warehouse and finally placed in a park.  Ironically, sculptor Erik Blome received criticism similar to what is being raised in 2007 about the pose.  His work showed Dr. King in a pose Rocky Mount citizens didn’t like.

But Illinois sculptor Erik Blome got one thing right with his Rocky Mount, NC statue in 2003.  Dr. King is holding a pen IN HIS RIGHT HAND.

Interestingly, the pose was actually taken from a copyrighted 1998 autobiography written by a  consultant to the group that won the 2000 right to design the National Mall site (Roma Design Group, San Francisco) - Stanford University history professor Clayborne Carson.

SO HERE’S FATAL FLAW #2:  DR. KING’S PEN IS IN THE WRONG HAND.  The Roma Design Group and Master Sculptor Lei Yixin have either reversed the picture of Dr. King, intentionally or out of ignorance.  The design that has already been given to hundreds of major donors mistakenly has Dr. King holding a pen in his LEFT hand; this means he is able to conveniently point his pen toward to the “promissory note” mentioned in his 1963 March on Washington speech.  Even the 2004 Roma Design Group shows Dr. King here using the wrong hand holding a pen. Was that because the quotation must face the entrance to the memorial?

 BUT… Dr. King’s pen should be in his RIGHT HAND as earlier pictures indicate.  Yet, Master Sculptor Lei Yixin continues to build his model with the pen in the wrong hand.  That means when Lei translates the clay into the 30-foot granite STONE OF HOPE model… it is going to be permanently  historically inaccurate!  That’s really revising history.  Getting Dr. King to hold a pen in the wrong hand is not a good thing.

 Clearly we can see that Dr. King was right handed at the 1963 March on Washington. Yet the fact that Dr. King is consistently being rendered in clay models and Roma Group designs of the STONE OF HOPE as being left handed suggest another flaw.  When sculptor Ed Dwight was replaced in February 2007… there was not a change in the Stone of Hope model of Dr. King.

 FATAL FLAW #3:  THE NEW SCULPTOR OF RECORD DID NOT START FROM SCRATCH AS CLAIMED BUT TOOK OVER ANOTHER’S DESIGN.  By putting legs on Dr. King, Lei Yixin has done the exact opposite of the Roma Design Group 2004 expressed wishes.  It is peculiar that in spite of the original wishes in the Roma Design Group for Dr. King not to be full figured (like other statues on the National Mall), that wish is now not being followed in the designs above.  Perhaps, the movement away from having Dr. King emerged out of the STONE OF HOPE is because the artistic public was denied the opportunity to share its visions and skills.

FATAL FLAW #4:  A SELECTION PROCESS THAT GIVES THE APPEARANCE OF UNFAIRNESS.  Unlike the design competition for the overall National Mall site, the SELECTION PROCESS for the Sculptor of Record was substantially different.  Broad input from artists was not sought between 2000 and 2007. WHY NOT? 

In the first round FOR THE OVERALL SITE on the National Mall… more than 900 applicants paid $75 each to have the opportunity to compete for the honor of honoring Dr. King.  Since the application fees brought in $67,500 one would think there would have been a powerful incentive for using the same process for selecting a sculptor for the centerpieces of the design - the  STONE OF HOPE and the MOUNTAIN OF DESPAIR.

SINCE IT IS COMMON practice for the Sculptor of Record to design the work and then subcontract the actual building or carving of the work to someone else, Ed Dwight was definitely initially involved in the selection of Lei Yixin in 2006. He gave Lei hundreds of pictures, videos, and records to help their collaboration.  But once Ed Dwight questioned whether Lei would indeed be able to translate Dr. King’s likeness in granite because his clay model hadn’t captured the likeness yet, Dwight was replaced. 

The subcontractor became the Sculptor of Record and according to Dwight received a check for $132,000 - substantially higher than the $98,000 he had requested for services rendered.  When I questioned the National Memorial Project’s contact person about that, I was told that everyone there felt very certain that the final product will be satisfactory because two African Americans are now acting as “Artistic Consultants.”  I found it strange that any African American would want to oversee the work of the Sculptor of Record rather than be the Sculptor of Record.  But I discovered that one of two (the other is a painter) is sculptor Ed Hamilton, the designer of the African American Civil War Memorial at 10th & U Streets in the District.  Hamilton is also my cousin so I called him in Louisville, Kentucky and found that he is scheduled to go to China this fall to provide input to Lei Yixin.  But why should a Master Sculpture need that kind of assistance?

 IF THE SELECTION PROCESS for the Sculptor of Record had been a competitive one, then there’s a good chance there would be limited discussion about the race and ethnicity of the artist.  That was the certainly the case when a “blind competition” for the National Mall site resulted in a white San Francisco firm (Roma Group) being chosen.  And with so many sculptors and paintings of Dr. King around the country, it is fair to say that there are some “good” ones and there are some “bad” ones when it comes to capturing his likeness.  This is the case regardless of race or gender.

 Interestingly, a quick look at the National Memorial Project website reveals that the Roma Design Group 2000 winning entry was different from its 2004 design.  I couldn’t find any mention in the earlier plans of a Stone of Hope or sculpture of Dr. King.  ROMA’s drawings mentioned bringing the elements together and having the area shaped like a ship.  But, it’s been a long 10-plus year struggle to get a memorial for Dr. King.  In spite of a lack of transparency about why $100 million is needed and exactly where the donated funds are going, most of us want this project to succeed.

THE FATAL FLAWS revealed in my research ARE meant to be a starting point for discussion.  What prevented the U.S. Commission on Fine Arts, for example, from noting that there is something historically incorrect about what it called the Foundation’s ”elegant designs?”  A competitive selection process might have eventually revealed that static poses of Dr. King were using different hands for his pen.

WHY THE NATIONAL MEMORIAL PROJECT Committee saw the need to travel to Italy and China and Minnesota is puzzling.  Why wasn’t the lead sculptor allowed to designate who would build his design.  It’s public record that Foundation members became ”excited” about the stone carvings of Lei Yixin and met with him did during his six-week stone carving event in Minnesota (June 2006).   But while the Martin Luther King Memorial Project wanted someone who could carve a 30-foot statue, did anyone stop to question the difference between producing “realistic” and “abstract” models.

Sculptor Lei Yixin’s work above which he completed in Minnesota is exciting but what about a human face.

THAT LEADS US TO FATAL FLAW #5 - NOT REQUESTING LEI TO TURN HIS CLAY MODEL OF DR. KING… INTO A THREE-QUARTER GRANITE ONE BEFORE NAMING HIM SCULPTOR OF RECORD  in February 2007.  A realistic rendition of Dr. King is not the same as his “Meditation” model for the Minnesota stonecutting event in May 2006.

THE SOLUTION

IT IS TIME TO END THE CONTROVERSY on several fronts.  The dedication in 2009 should be a time of joy and harmony.  These fatal flaws are offered as constructive criticism.  At a minimum for the sake of harmony, Ed Dwight should again be named the Sculptor of Record or a NATIONAL COMPETITION should be held immediately.  Since the Roma Design Group deliberately said it did not want a full figured rendition of Dr. King… the new design should show less body and more face.  The pose with arms crossed does not fit the COLLECTIVE MEMORY of the nation.  Maybe the mall is not the place for a dignified rendition of the Atlanta preacher.  While the rumor is that Lei Yixin name or “made in China” will not appear on the sculpted pieces, why not have full attribution of those who work on the STONE OF HOPE and MOUNTAIN OF DESPAIR.  Lei can still be hired as a subcontractor to build the design of the Sculptor of Record… but attribution should be given to more than one person.  That way the attribution for both Dwight and Lei or another competitively chosen person would quell the dissenting voices. 

Right now Lei plans to send his 1000 pound, 30 foot high sculptor in 100 crates to be reassemble on the National Mall.  Given the importance of these centerpieces on the National Mall, there can be a win-win situation if the King Memorial Project Foundation acts quickly to rectify the situation and inaccuracies that are creating controversies.  It certainly will move us all beyond the controversial issue of  “outsourcing” Dr. King to China. That means, of course, that short of a competition Ed Dwight would end up being the one going to China to continue his collaboration with his subcontractor who is building his design.  That certainly does not stop the two  “Artistic Consultants” from going but it ends the insulting position they have been put in to oversee the work of Lei Yixiin when their work, particularly Ed Hamilton’s, should have been considered as Sculptor of Record in the first place.

This conflict-resolution  approach has merit because it will move the rhetoric beyond whether there is enough granite being used from Dr. King’s Atlanta in the historical National Memorial project.

What we have here to date is what sociologist call - the POLITICS OF IDENTITY.  By acting now on who is doing what, when, and how a planned protest could become a non-issue by the time the Foundation holds it New York City Dream Concert Fundraiser on September 18th..  Let there be harmony instead of protests.  There is a controversy, contrary to what CEO Harry Johnson proclaims in the newspapers and to me.  As a student and professor of social movements, I can certify that the environment is conducive to mounting a protest.  One should not underestimate how much a movement can grow between now and  the 2009 dedication on the National Mall.  Someone at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation needs to find a way of resolving the fatal flaws.  That way those of us who want to contribute to assure the success of a wonderful honor for Dr. King… will be able to demonstrate that we can overcome some things, if not others… at least symbolically.