() — The barrage of criticism came shortly after a monument intended to honor the legacy of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King was unveiled in Boston.
The statue “The Embrace”The statue, 20 feet tall and 40 feet wide, was unveiled Friday on Boston Common, where King delivered a speech on April 23, 1965 to a crowd of 22,000. The statue was inspired by a photograph of King and Scott King embracing after he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
The work, designed by Brooklyn-based conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, only shows the arms of the couple during the embrace and not their heads, which generated criticism and ridicule on the internet. Some people described the monument as hideous or disrespectful, while others posted memes and said it resembled a sexual act.
Seneca Scott, a community organizer in Oakland, California, and a cousin of Scott King, told that the statue was an insult to his family. He previously described it as a “metal masturbatory tribute” in an essay he published Compact Magazine.
“If you can look at it from all angles, and it’s probably two people hugging, it’s four hands. It is not the missing heads that represent the atrocity that other people attribute to this; it’s a stump that looked like a penis. That’s a joke,” Scott told .
The memorial sculpture on Boston Common has drawn mixed criticism online and from some family members. (Credit: Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
However, Martin Luther King III said Monday that he was grateful to be able to see a statue depicting his parents’ love story and relationship. While some people have negative views of the monument, King III told ‘s Don Lemon on Monday that the monument.
“I think it’s a great representation of bringing people together,” King said. “I think the artist did a great job. I am satisfied. Yes, he did not have the images of my mom and dad, but he represents something that unites people.
“And in this moment, day and age, when there is so much division, we need symbols that speak of coming together,” he added.
has reached out to Thomas for comment on the reaction to “The Embrace.” In your newsletterThomas said earlier this month that the piece was not just a monument to King and Scott King “but a monument to love and the power that it has.”
A representative for Embrace Boston, a nonprofit racial and economic justice group behind the monument’s creation, declined to comment on the criticism, deferring to King III’s comments.
“The Embrace is intended to inspire visitors to reflect on the values of racial and economic justice espoused by the Kings,” the group said of the memorial on its website.
