KING IS OURS
KING IS OURS
There is a time to talk and a time to take action
It's time to take Action Now
The planned monument to our beloved Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been awarded to an artist from a country with a reprehensible history of civil rights violations against its people. No one in the USA was even allowed to bid on this project before it was outsourced directly to China. The granite to be used for King's sculpture will be quarried using slave labor--Chinese workers are not even provided proper masks to protect their lungs from the silica dust. They die in droves because the Chinese government considers them just as important as the students who protested in Tiananmen Square. The world watched the tanks roll over them. No human rights, No civil rights, and yet the honor of sculpting Dr. Martin Luther King? Not on our watch!
King is OUR national treasure. We will not have an artist famous for his statues of the mass murderer Mao Tse Tung, and tool of a government that labeled King a "reactionary running dog," sculpting the King monument. Would we allow an artist famous for his statues of Hitler to sculpt Anne Frank? Combine these facts with another: There is not ONE national monument to a leader of any country anywhere on this planet with the name of an African American artist on its base.
We protest. And we demand the right to interpret and present our own historic proclamation in this first ever national monument to an African American man. Sign Our Petition & Join us!
African American Artist & American Granite
KING IS OURS
There is a time to talk and a time to take action
It's time to take Action Now
The planned monument to our beloved Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been awarded to an artist from a country with a reprehensible history of civil rights violations against its people. No one in the USA was even allowed to bid on this project before it was outsourced directly to China. The granite to be used for King's sculpture will be quarried using slave labor--Chinese workers are not even provided proper masks to protect their lungs from the silica dust. They die in droves because the Chinese government considers them just as important as the students who protested in Tiananmen Square. The world watched the tanks roll over them. No human rights, No civil rights, and yet the honor of sculpting Dr. Martin Luther King? Not on our watch!
King is OUR national treasure. We will not have an artist famous for his statues of the mass murderer Mao Tse Tung, and tool of a government that labeled King a "reactionary running dog," sculpting the King monument. Would we allow an artist famous for his statues of Hitler to sculpt Anne Frank? Combine these facts with another: There is not ONE national monument to a leader of any country anywhere on this planet with the name of an African American artist on its base.
We protest. And we demand the right to interpret and present our own historic proclamation in this first ever national monument to an African American man. Sign Our Petition & Join us!
African American Artist & American Granite
KING IS OURS
There is a time to talk and a time to take action
The planned monument to our beloved Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. has been awarded to an artist from a country with a reprehensible history of civil rights violations against its people. No one in the USA was even allowed to bid on this project before it was outsourced directly to China. The granite to be used for King's sculpture will be quarried using slave labor--Chinese workers are not even provided proper masks to protect their lungs from the silica dust. They die in droves because the Chinese government considers them just as important as the students who protested in Tiananmen Square. The world watched the tanks roll over them. No human rights, No civil rights, and yet the honor of sculpting Dr. Martin Luther King? Not on our watch!
King is OUR national treasure. We will not have an artist famous for his statues of the mass murderer Mao Tse Tung, and tool of a government that labeled King a "reactionary running dog," sculpting the King monument. Would we allow an artist famous for his statues of Hitler to sculpt Anne Frank? Combine these facts with another: There is not ONE national monument to a leader of any country anywhere on this planet with the name of an African American artist on its base.
We protest. And we demand the right to interpret and present our own historic proclamation in this first ever national monument to an African American man. Sign Our Petition & Join us!
African American Artist & American Granite
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I think the honor of producing the Martin Luther King, Jr. should be given to an American artist, using American granite.
marji@nycap.rr.com
I can not believe that an American sculptor has not been awarded this project. To add insult to injury, a Chinese artist utilizing chinese products has been awarded this very American project. Shame on you!
this is an atrocity. Must we give all our efforts to make America more reliant on other countries and foreign labor. As a stone carver, I would like for the work to come back to the USA. Thanks.
I am less concerned about the background of the Chinese sculptor than I am by the fact that this commission was not put out for bids to U.S. artists, and that the statue will be created by a foreign artist based on a design by an American artist, whose work will not be acknowledged. The idea that no U.S. sculptor has even been considered for this monument to American civil rights leader Martin Luther King is nothing short of outrageous.
hallmark@rci.rutgers.edu
Shanika Bennett-Breeden
As a sculptor and an American Citizen living overseas I know first hand the intrinsic necessity for a native born American to carve this sculpture!
Kiwheelers@slingshot.co.nz
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Your email address: kmitchellg@yahoo.com
Big money rules again! Stand up, be counted! Raise a fist and demand this sculpture be executed by Americans in America!
King is ours do the right thing
tanzilshabazz@yahoo.com
Lakenya Watford First of all, I think that fact that Lei Yixin, a Chinese sculptor, even having the privilege to create the beauty that was one possessed by a man who died for the rights of his people, is wrong. It’s not the fact that Lei Yixin isn’t a talented artist, but why is it so hard for the Commission of Fine Arts, to find an African American artist just as, if not more gifted than Lei Yixin. The Chinese government once called King “a political lapdog”-would African Americans really want Lei Yixin, who is represented by the Chinese government, to really work on the sculpture that expresses Dr. King’s historical legacy? I think not! Dr. King committed his life and sacrificed it for African Americans, such as myself, to even have the privilege to attend an art school with whites, blacks, Asians and people of all other colors and creeds. Artists, including African Americans, are capable of the same creative techniques taught through art. It is unjustifiable to African American’s and Dr. King to allow this wrong doing to continue. Also the inconsideration the Commission of Fine Arts has towards this project is inexcusable. Disregarding the fact that they have not even granted the opportunity for an African American art student to work on the sculpture that holds an essence pride, but the fact that seven, all white members, want to retouch Dr. King’s image is sickening! They used strong worded language in a letter stating that the statue “features a stiffly frontal image, static in pose, confrontational in character…” I’ve seen the statue, and basically the Commission of Fine Arts, is threatened by Dr. King’s image. They are just describing how they see Dr. King. They are confusing the power that Dr. King possessed, with confrontational. As a citizen, I want the existing sculpture burned to dust, and a new sculpture created by an African American art student who holds the pride of Dr. King dear to their heart, understands and comprehends the astronomical legacy he left behind, would breathe life back into Dr. King’s hands with every piece of clay shaping it, and make Dr. King smile with the heart, integrity and creativity put into that sculpture! We deserve it!!!
Laurynski@yahoo.com
Dr. King is a legacy! That legacy shows a long road from which African Americans have come, since 17th century slavery. I agree that it is not fair that no African American sculptor was offered the chance to do the world this great honor. We thank Dr. King's life which God gave to us. We thank so many other African Americans today for their work. With the idea that our grandest symbol and maybe America's greatest monument would be viewed as "made in China" is a disgrace. The commission belongs to an African American because, as we can see, there still are far too many struggles we African Americans are forced into today. God is watching and God will respond. King is Ours! I also am an artist and I know what honor I have after I complete a commission or sell a piece. Bill Clinton commissioned Simmie Knox to paint his portrait and Hillary's, and is hanging in the White House with all the other presidents. Simmie is the only African American artist to do so. It is a proud moment that lasts forever. There is no other African American memorialized this way. Shame on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts. Shame on the controversy over the initial submitted sculpture and the approved work. Shame on despising the call for a black artist to do the honor and therefore be honored. Shame on overlooking what African Americans have done for our ancestors. Shame on disregarding centuries of slavery and the petitions by hundreds of our slave ancestors to unlock the fetters. Shame on disregarding what God sent Dr. King to do, fight for our freedom. Shame on the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts for spitting on African American artists and blacks freedom. Shame on the White House curators for not having enough black art in it's collection. Lei is not black and to see him standing proudly next to our American hero robs us of our dignity. There may not be another monument established at the National Mall within the next fifty to one-hundred years. God bless the NAACP for its support. God Bless Us All!
bradsha7@student.gpc.edu
After all that weve been thru as a people. One of the things that resonates in the forefront of my mind is the botched execution our nation attempted upon our people during the Katrina disaster. We must open our eyes to the reality that we are still public enemy number one in America. Now one of our mightest examples of our quest for justice is again to be molested by the power stucture of this administration and this country.
terincolo@comcast.net
This is such a disgrace! Apparently the endless stream of freight containers flowing from China to fill our stores (and the pockets of the businessmen who long ago abandoned their American workforce) isn't enough. Now this tribute to a great American must also bear the stamp "Made in China." I don't believe that it should necessarily be sculpted by a black man or woman, but at least an American who knows the impact Dr. King's life has made. I am a commercial artist by trade, and I personally know several African American sculptors who are absolutely phenomenal artists. There is no question in my mind that any one of them would produce an exceptional piece of sculpture. Why weren't they given the chance? I am actually feeling physically nauseous at the moment. I'm not sure if it was that lunch I ate, or from reading about this. Gotta go.
dnstcks@yahoo.com
