Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is nationally considered one of
the, if not the most, influential people in respect to the 1960’s civil right
movement. Recently a memorial has been constructed near the national mall in
Washington D.C. The artist commissioned with
creating the centerpiece of the memorial, a large stone with a statue of King
carved into it was a Chinese national named Lei Yixin. Should the artist of the statue have been an African-American
artist, possibly an older one that was alive during the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement was primarily
composed of and for African-Americans who were being oppressed under the
remaining Jim Crow laws that permeated society in the southern portion of the
U.S., why should a member of that group not be given the exclusive right to
make the national memorial to the fallen leader who lead them in abolishing most
of what remained of de jure segregation? Perhaps Dr. King’s own massage of
peace and brotherhood holds that answer. King spent the years leading up to his
assassination supporting not African-Americans specificly, but equality among
people of all races and creeds in America.
Would this equality not extend to foreigners with different political or
cultural views?
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