Appreciates MLK statue
Editor, Gettysburg Times,
A beautiful memorial for Martin Luther King Jr., or a giant piece of fecal matter? Both statements are being said about a new statue in Boston, Massachusetts, in celebration of King and all his accomplishments. The memorial was revealed to the public on Jan.13, three days before Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The city of Boston holds great significance to the King family: it is the city where the King’s met, where they studied in college, and where King led one of the first civil rights marches in the northeast. 20,000 people marched alongside King, their passion flooding the streets of the Boston Common.
Fifty-eight years and nineteen tons of bronze later, “The Embrace” is one of the 69 statues within the Boston Common commemorating civil rights leaders. The statue references a photo of Dr. and Mrs. King embraced shortly after the announcement of King’s Nobel Peace Award in 1964. The statue focuses on their arms, excluding their heads from the statue. “In that photograph of them in 1964, his arms are wrapped around her but also his weight is on her, “The sculptor, Hank Willis Thomas, said. “To see her so gracefully and lovingly carrying that weight, it was a metaphor for what she was able to do throughout a huge portion of (Thomas’s) life.”
This statue is a beautiful representation of how the two empowered each other, and how love and support can provide the courage to change the world. It shows that Dr. King did not achieve all that he did alone, but with a loving family and community right by his side.
As beautiful as the message is, some of the artistic choices Thomas made in creating the sculpture have caused some recent controversy. As previously mentioned, the King’s are shown without their heads, in an attempt to have the embrace be the main subject matter. Many have also described Dr. King’s arm as looking phallic. Seneca Scott, Scott King’s cousin, has even gone as far to say that the statue is a “masturbatory metal homage.”
No matter how many times it gets described as “hideous” or “degrading”, you cannot deny the heartwarming message shown through “The Embrace”, as well as the racial and political mark the King’s have left on this society.
Rae Chapman,
York Springs
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