Gold Dome Live is moving!
Our new spot will allow us to get the news to you even faster and make commenting easier. Please bookmark the new site and sign up for our rss feed:
http://blogs.ajc.com/gold-dome-live/
AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2007 > February > 07
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Effort renewed for portraits of civil rights leaders
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Several state lawmakers have revived efforts to hang a portrait of Coretta Scott King, next to one of her husband in Georgia’s State Capitol — plus portraits of five more civil rights leaders, including Rosa Parks.
But the chances of these measures passing the Legislature this year are uncertain. The director of the Capitol Museum says there is no room left in the building for additional portraits. And House Speaker Glenn Richardson (R-Hiram) said he has concerns about the measures.
Similar proposals died in the General Assembly last year after Richardson said he had “reluctance to hang very many photos” of people who are not elected and are not from Georgia in the state’s Capitol.
The House Special Rules Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on these ideas Friday at 9 a.m.
“I have been very disappointed at the lack of diversity in the showcasing of Georgia’s history,” said state Rep. Tyrone Brooks (D-Atlanta), president of the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, who is co-sponsoring the measures. “All you have to do is walk through the Capitol, walk the grounds of the Capitol, and it is quite evident that the true diversity of Georgia’s history is not being displayed.”
The state’s capitol art collection includes 296 portraits, plaques, statues and sculptures, some of which are in storage. Of the 93 portraits now on display in the Capitol, only five depict African-Americans, including the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., said Dorothy Olson, director of the Georgia Capitol Museum and Capitol Tours.
Brooks, Rep. Roberta Abdul-Salaam (D-Riverdale) and several other lawmakers want to change that. They want to put up portraits of King’s late wife; Parks, Ralph David Abernathy, Hosea Williams, Joseph Lowery and Joseph Boone.
Parks is best known for defying segregated bus seating in Alabama in 1955.
Abernathy was one of Martin Luther King’s top lieutenants and the co-founder and former president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Williams served in the House of Representatives from 1974 to 1983 and was the founder of “Hosea’s Feed the Hungry and Homeless” campaign. He was also a leader of the march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in 1965, an event that helped secure passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Lowery co-founded the SCLC with King and has been a champion of election, criminal justice and government reforms.
Boone was a longtime minister and civil rights picketer.
The lawmakers also want the state to designate April 27 as Coretta Scott King Day.
Asked if the proposals would pass this year, Richardson said: “I wouldn’t say it is likely, but I say it is possible.”
“I have reservations about considering putting anyone’s portrait in the Capitol regardless of color, sex, national origin,” he said. “I think we ought to be slow and … deliberative about putting portraits in the Capitol. It is not to say that every one of those people is not worthy. But I suspect that there are hundreds of people, thousands of people that are worthy that have done great service to the state.”
“I do think that, as a general rule, it ought to be residents of Georgia that claim Georgia as home,” Richardson added about his criteria for which portraits should go in the Capitol, “and I do know that some of those people on that list are not Georgia residents. And this is the Georgia Capitol.”
Several people who are not from Georgia are honored in the portraits already on display in the Capitol, including Confederate General Robert E. Lee of Virginia and President Andrew Jackson, who was born in South Carolina.
The Georgia State NAACP called Richardson’s concerns “excuses” and “delay tactics.”
“Coretta Scott King and Martin Luther King both gave a lot to America,” said Edward DuBose, president of the Georgia State NAACP. “We will stand behind any bill that stands to honor them and at the same time would challenge anyone who would have the audacity to vote something like that down.”
The Legislature created a panel last year to set standards for determining whether new artwork should go in the Capitol. But the members of the Capitol Arts Standards Commission have not yet been appointed, Olson said.
Under House Bill 88 and House Resolution 121, the portraits of Coretta Scott King and the other civil rights leaders would be hung on the second floor of the Capitol alongside Martin Luther King Jr.’s picture.
King’s portrait is near a corner of the building beside Gov. Sonny Perdue’s office, sandwiched between portraits of former Governors Roy Barnes and George Troup. There is no wall space left for additional portraits in the Capitol, Olson said. If the new portraits were to go up, she said, others would have to come down.
“Space,” Olson said, “is at a premium.”
Brooks said he is willing to compromise.
“We are open to some negotiation, if necessary,” Brooks said. “We think this is an adequate, viable proposal that deserves a fair hearing and consideration.”
Permalink | Comments (22) | Categories: politics
