The family of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has served notice to Gov. Nathan Deal that it wants input into any monument to the slain civil rights leader erected on state Capitol grounds – if the state expects free use of King’s copyrighted likeness.
On MLK Day in January, before an Ebenezer Baptist Church congregation, Deal promised to work with the Legislature to give King a more prominent place on Capitol grounds. A bill to that effect passed the House Monday; it must still pass the Senate.
It is a rare and politically delicate piece of bipartisan legislation, carrying the signatures of House Majority Leader Larry O’Neal, R-Bonaire, and state Rep. Joe Wilkinson, R-Sandy Springs, as well as two Democrats: Rep. Calvin Smyre of Columbus and Tyrone Brooks of Atlanta.
If the King letter does not imperil the bill, it could cool Republican enthusiasm for the measure.
Smyre, one of the longest-serving lawmakers in the Legislature, said he was surprised by its timing — it was written the same day the House approved the bill. He said he looked forward to briefing its author on the ways of the Capitol.
“My job is shepherding this bill through the legislative process,” Smyre said. “Thereafter, the right people will be assembled and the right meeting will be held.”
News of the letter surfaced on the same day King’s only surviving daughter, Bernice King, repeated pleas to her two brothers not to sell a Bible he carried and his Nobel Peace Prize medal.
Collectively, the two brewing controversies brought swift negative reactions from onlookers, several of whom groused that the great man’s legacy was being ill served by his heirs.
“Mr. King was a wonderful individual for human rights. Too bad the family can’t get enough money and recognition from his efforts,” wrote one commenter on ajc.com.
“I am so tired of the King family. They are dragging his name through the mud,” wrote another.
The two-page letter from the corporation that oversees the King estate went to Chris Riley, the governor’s chief of staff. It reminded remind Deal that the King estate owns all rights to King’s “name, image, likeness, words, rights of publicity, copyrighted works, recorded voice, and trademark interests.”
It also chided the governor for not getting in touch. “When the media reported that the Governor referenced this initiative in remarks he made on the King Holiday, we expected to hear from your office and the appropriate parties seeking the Estate’s input and approval,” wrote Eric Tidwell, managing director of Intellectual Properties Management.
“To date, we have not received any formal request for permission to utilize any of Dr. King’s [intellectual property].”
The missive provoked a quick exchange between Riley, the governor’s top aide, and the King family representative.
“We will continue to monitor the legislation,” Riley wrote in a same-day email. “Please do not assume the governor would ever try to financially capitalize on the legacy of Dr. King. He is simply…trying to honor a great Georgian.”
Tidwell replied that “the notion of monetizing Dr. King’s image on the part of the governor never crossed our mind.” The King family has often allowed licenses to use King’s image at no cost to governments, Tidwell said. But the family wants to be included “in the process to determine how Dr. King will be honored.”
Repeated calls to Tidwell by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution were not returned Thursday.
HB 1080 does not offer any specifics of how King would be honored, but sets the process in motion – and states that the project would be paid for with private funds.
Smyre said the family would be “fully” involved if a statue is built. He said the fact that a licensing issue would eventually arise was well known, as was the King children’s diligent efforts to control their father’s legacy and intellectual property rights.
The most vivid and recent example occurred in conjunction with the 2011 erection of the King Memorial on the National Mall.
Before the memorial opened, King, Inc., battled with the foundation that funded the project over control — seeking, for example, to have all King’s books removed from the memorial bookstore.
In 2013, King, Inc., forced the foundation, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation, to shut down after refusing to allow them to continue using the name “Martin Luther King Jr.” The website that had been the foundation’s primary fund-raising tool was also shut down.
The foundation had paid the King family $2.7 million for the use of King’s likeness and quotes on the memorial.
At times, disagreements over the proper stewardship of their father’s legacy has split even his children into warring camps.
Thursday morning, five days before she is required by a judge to turn over her father’s Bible and Nobel medal, Bernice King renewed her public campaign to persuade her brothers not to sell the items.
“I implore you to consider the magnitude of this moment in history and how you want your individual legacies to be defined,” she said. “I urge you to reconsider your position, so when the books are written, you will be on the right side of history.”
Following a January vote, in which her bothers out-voted her 2-1 to seek a buyer, Bernice King refused to surrender the two items. Her brothers filed suit to compel her to do so.
Last month, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ordered her to place the items in a safety deposit box controlled by the King estate until the case is resolved. McBurney and the court will control keys to the box.
The trial is set for Sept. 29.
Thursday, Bernice King called for a new vote on the matter, “with the prayer that, if not both of my brothers, at least one will stand in agreement with me and put and end to what I believe is a spiritually violent and embarrassing chapter in our family’s history.”
In past conflicts, Martin Luther King III has sometimes aligned with his sister and other times with his brother, Dexter Scott King. Eric Barnum, an attorney for Bernice King, would not say whether her latest appeal was aimed at one or the other, specifically.
“I think she spoke to both of them today,” he said.
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