Atlanta’s civil rights center claim pathetic

Here we go again with Atlanta’s latest attempt to invent a new tourist attraction from a noble cause that Atlanta had very little to do with. Other than the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. being born here and several civil rights leaders moving here after the movement had started to subside, Atlanta had very little involvement with the civil rights movement. To suddenly claim that Atlanta is the incubator of the civil rights movement is hogwash. King was living in Montgomery when the civil rights movement started.

Notice the careful placement of this new civil rights edifice right in the middle of tourist town? Yep, good merchandising and marketing. It just goes to show that Atlanta, which bulldozed and tore down all it’s old south charm decades ago, really is a tinseltown. There are so many cities that deserve this center more than Atlanta. In fact, Atlanta should have been the last choice. It just breaks my heart for a city to be so shameless and mercenary in making a well-placed tourist trap stand for a movement in which so many died and sacrificed.

Atlanta has only a bogus claim to being a civil rights movement center, so the whole thing is pathetic from the get go. If Atlanta had any legitimate claim to building this center (which, of course, it does not) then why not choose a more honorable place for the center (Auburn Avenue, Emory University, Morehouse College) where it would be a true cultural and educational edifice with a noble purpose, and not a money making tourist trap? It is unthinkable that anything dealing with civil rights would not be built near the birthplace and final resting place of the father of the civil rights movement. Again, the money-making potential wins out in Atlanta or, should I say, Tinseltown South.

What will shameless Atlanta go for next, an oceanographic institute? I remember a few years ago when Atlanta did everything possible to get the NASCAR museum — claiming falsely to be the center of everything NASCAR. Of course, NASCAR saw through Atlanta’s claim and put the museum in Charlotte where it should be.

Does anyone see the stinking hypocrisy in all this?

• Charles Lee, a retired educator, lives in Marietta.