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Sometimes you have to sit quietly, talk it out with your higher power and walk away from dinero that's sure to leave a bad taste in your mouth. So it is from that perspective that I am calling out the heirs of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for taking more than $800,000 from the memorial fund.
WASHINGTON - The family of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has charged the foundation building a monument to the civil rights leader on the National Mall about $800,000 for the use of his words and image -- an arrangement one leading scholar says King would have found offensive.
The memorial -- including a 28-foot sculpture depicting King emerging from a chunk of granite -- is being paid for almost entirely with private money in a fundraising campaign led by the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation. It will be turned over to the National Park Service once it is complete.
The foundation has been paying the King family for the use of his words and image in its fundraising materials. The family has not charged for the use of King's likeness in the monument itself.
Source - MSNBC.com, King family draws fees from memorial project Scholar: Civil rights leader would have been 'scandalized' by payments
I think this is shameful. Read on:
"I don't think the Jefferson family, the Lincoln family ... I don't think any other group of family ancestors has been paid a licensing fee for a memorial in Washington," said Cambridge University historian David Garrow, who won a Pulitzer prize for his biography of King. "One would think any family would be so thrilled to have their forefather celebrated and memorialized in D.C. that it would never dawn on them to ask for a penny."
King would have been "absolutely scandalized by the profiteering behavior of his children," Garrow said.
King's family defends taking the "fees:"
In a statement to the AP, Intellectual Properties Management said proceeds from the licensing agreement go to the King Center in Atlanta, where King and his wife, Coretta Scott King, are entombed. The statement said the arrangement was made out of concern that fundraising for the monument would undercut donations to the King Center.Well then that means that the King family needs to clean up it's marketing literature to be more precise, not to grab money from the memorial to their patriarch!
"Many individuals believe all King fundraising initiatives are interrelated and don't donate to the King Center, thinking they have already supported it by donating to the memorial," the statement said.
Source - MSNBC.com, King family draws fees from memorial project Scholar: Civil rights leader would have been 'scandalized' by payments
What do you think should happen now?
Comments: (46)
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By: In My Opinion on 4/21/2009 8:50AM
Sounds kinda gansta, we goin' get what is due us "By any means necessary". Question what have they done to make a name for or provide for themselves without that was not tide to their father?
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By: Jimmie Floyd on 4/20/2009 9:28AM
The King children are a dying species except for one brother, who is married and is a father.The other siblins are to sacred to have kids or get married ,and they will die leaving no one to carry their name , so it is wise for them to enjoy this life while they are living. MLK Jr was their father and they have the right to gain a profit from his many great works. The country murdered their father and his royalties are their enheratance. They have the right to everything his name is on. You cannot even put Micky Mouse on a day care center without the Disney family approval. I hope the King kids would all get married and carry their father's name to the next future generation. They lost a great sister that never had kids.
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By: Michelle on 4/20/2009 9:39AM
I agree with you Jimmie they should make a profit off of anything with their fathers name on it. If they don't take a stand then other's will try to make a profit off of their father's legacy.
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By: raywil3 on 4/20/2009 12:32PM
What the King family is doing is disgusting. If they need money, let them use their education and get a JOB! They shouldn't make a dime off of this.
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By: sagedame on 4/20/2009 10:33AM
Interesting that Jimmie Floyd compares Dr. M.L.K. to Mickey Mouse. And, that's the point. MLK is NOT Mickey Mouse of the likes and should not be treated like a piece of merchandise. Shame on the King family for such profiteering.
Sagedame
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By: Jimmie Floyd on 4/20/2009 2:55PM
You missed the point I said Micky Mouse is an copyrighted symbal that is property of the Disney family, and they make money of of it. Anbd you and I cannot make a dime off of it. You sound like a hater to me
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By: Dee on 4/27/2009 3:22PM
First of all, why is it disgraceful for them to profit of their father's name sake. If they are not who is? Someone evidently, if there is money to take. They are airs to a King and should not have to slave for someone else to get what is rightfuly theirs.
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By: Jimmie Floyd on 4/20/2009 10:57AM
I'm sorry segedame if I offended a Mickey Mouse fan. But Disney owns Mickey Mouse, The King family own their fathers works, and why should they give it away free, people are making millions of dollars on his photos and whatever they can put his photo on, and if the family turned over his works, someone will make millions of dollars. Museams are not free.I'm quite shure you have a MLK Jr t shirt in your closet ,did the King family make any money off of your T shirt. Black people have given up so many enventions and ideas and received no financial rewards in the end.
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By: hbenj on 4/20/2009 12:19PM
I agree somewhat Jimmy. But where the King kids get it wrong is that it's not about them. There are better ways to profit off their father's name than have it so public and so ugly.
If they don't control their ambition, soon MLK will stand for Martin's Loser Kids
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By: kcn9971 on 4/20/2009 12:28PM
I am sick and tired of the King family "pimping" out their fathers legacy. They have become nothing but a bunch of black mercenaries taking money from the highest bidders. Not one has tried to pick up the paton and keep the justice and equality movement going. They have simply become pigs feeding at the trough; and they have no problem stealing money from very people their father tried to help(You...Black America!!!) Well, I hope King family enjoys that 800k, because that money has the blood of their father and the civil rights movement on it!!!!
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