Boston’s Martin Luther King Jr monument sparks debate

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A backlash came shortly after a monument to honor the legacy of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King in Boston was unveiled. The 20-foot-tall, 40-foot-wide “The Embrace” statue was unveiled on Boston Common on Friday, where King gave a speech on April 23, 1965, to a crowd of 22,000. The statue was inspired by a photograph of King and Scott King which captured them hugging after winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. The artwork, designed by the concept artist based in Brooklyn’s Hank Willis Thomas features only the couple’s arms during the embrace and not their heads, which has drawn criticism and mockery online. While some people defended the sculpture, others described it as hideous or disrespectful, with social media users posting memes saying it looked like a sex act.

Seneca Scott, a community organizer in Oakland, Calif., and cousin of Scott King, told CNN the statue was insulting to her family. He previously described it as a “masturbatory homage to metal” in an essay published by Compact Magazine.

“If you can look at it from all angles, and it’s probably two people hugging, it’s four hands. It’s not the missing heads that are the atrocity other people are staring at; it’s a stump that looked like a penis. It’s a joke,” Scott told CNN.

The Boston Common memorial sculpture has drawn mixed reviews online and from some family members. Credit: Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe/Getty Images

But Martin Luther King III said on Monday he was grateful to be able to see a statue depicting his parents’ love affair and partnership. While some people have negative opinions of the monument, he told CNN’s Don Lemon on Monday that he loves it.

“I think it’s a huge performance to bring people together,” King said. “I think the artist did a great job. I’m satisfied. Yes, there weren’t the images of my mom and dad, but it represents something that brings people together.”

“And in this time, day and time, when there are so many divisions, we need symbols that speak of bringing us together,” he added.

Thomas appeared on “CNN This Morning” on Tuesday and said his goal was to capture “the feeling of love” in the Kings’ relationship and he had no plans to change the statue.

“It’s a piece that was selected by the people of Boston. It wasn’t Hank who just put something on. Thousands of people worked on it, thousands of people actually put it together, and nobody saw this, I would say, a perverted perspective,” Thomas said.

He noted that other monuments like the Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Washington Monument have drawn criticism in the past and “The Embrace” is just another example.

In his newsletter, Thomas said earlier this month that the coin was not just a monument to King and Scott King “but a monument to the love and power he holds.”

A representative for Embrace Boston, a nonprofit racial and economic justice group behind the monument’s creation, declined to comment on the critics and deferred to King III’s comments.

“The Embrace is meant to inspire visitors to reflect on the values ​​of racial and economic justice that both kings espoused,” the group said of the memorial on its website.

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