Last January, from the pulpit of Ebenezer Baptist Church, Gov. Nathan Deal declared it time to give Martin Luther King Jr. a larger presence on the state Capitol campus.
House Bill 1080, signed by the governor last April, codified his intention.
We haven't heard much about the topic since then, but we're picking up rumblings of a building consensus that we're likely to hear more of before next week's King holiday:
-- MLK will have a full-fledged statue, not a bust or plaque.
-- The statue will be located on the state Capitol grounds proper, looking at the new Liberty Plaza across Capitol Avenue. The statue would be the only one on not memorializing a state official. The MLK statue would be on the same side of the Capitol as former Gov. Eugene Talmadge. There's a boatload of irony in that.
-- Also, an annual leadership award will be associated with the statue.
Funding has yet to be arranged. And permission from the King family for the use of MLK’s image has yet to be worked out.
About the Author
