Race row hits memorial for Martin Luther King

[babsbunny]

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article2896198.ece

Calls for black sculptor to replace Chinese artist
By Ben Evans in Washington
Published: 26 August 2007
A place has been prepared for a monument to the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr on the most hallowed ground in America. But the nature of that memorial is causing a dispute that threatens to sully the memory of a man renowned for his intent to unite people.

The rumpus is over the ethnicity of the sculptor who will carve the monu- ment. A Chinese sculptor has been chosen to carve a monument three storeys high on the National Mall in Washington, where it will be placed between the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. But a loose-knit and growing group of critics is demanding that a black sculptor, or at least an American, should have been chosen. The protesters have been joined by human rights advocates who say King would have abhorred the Chinese government's record on religious and civil liberties.