MLK Legend in Atlanta be squandered by his family

[Tommy J]

The enclosed appeared in today's local newspaper. I think it's a damn shame that his own family now ACTS completely differently than his message. Isn't that just typical!


OUR OPINION

A legacy squandered
Financial, physical upkeep of King Center cannot be left in hands of the civil rights leader's family

Published on: 02/09/05

Since the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on that terrible day in 1968, his widow and children have been treated like royalty by those who honored his sacrifice and shared their grief.

But that deference has engendered an arrogant disdain for the public among the first family of the civil rights movement. That disdain has been made apparent in many ways, most recently by the shameful deterioration of the King Center in downtown Atlanta that bears the fallen hero's name and contains his final resting place.

Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporters Ernie Suggs, Jill Young Miller and Mae Gentry have found that the nonprofit Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change is literally falling apart, and the financial condition of the center has steadily declined.

Despite nearly $12 million in desperately needed repair work, the family-run King Center has become little more than a cushy jobs program for his sons, who are drawing obscenely high salaries and running the place like absentee landlords. Martin, the oldest son, is pulling down $150,000 a year as president and CEO. Baby brother Dexter, the former CEO and now chief operating officer, gets a $179,000 salary plus $8,700 in benefits and other compensation, even though he is pursuing a Hollywood career. Both men are making more than executives in comparable nonprofits.

Meanwhile, other King Center staffers have been laid off, denied raises and threatened with firing if they dare talk to the media.

Because of a bureaucratic mixup, the King Center hasn't been inspected for fire code violations since 1997. A report done last year by the National Park Service, however, found a host of problems including potential electrical hazards and water leaks that forced staffers to move valuable King documents to keep them safe and dry.

Outside the center, the reflecting pool where King's marble tomb rests is slicked with oil and strewn with leaves. The bricked paths are cracked and water seeps onto the pavement.

The physical evidence of decay mirrors the King Center's worsening fiscal situation. The center has been operating at a deficit in recent years, its net worth has dipped dangerously low and the King birth home, which the family still owns, has been mortgaged to pay outstanding debts.

After so many years of neglect, correcting problems at the King Center will require drastic measures. Well-meaning corporations and individuals who loyally support the King Center should withhold their contributions until the family agrees to a thorough audit of its finances and commits to a financial turnaround plan.

The Park Service, which is already responsible for maintaining most of the landmarks in the popular King Historic District, including the birth home, Visitors Center and Ebenezer Baptist Church, should be retained to handle upkeep of the King Center as well. The only obstacle to that happening has been the family's stubborn refusal to accept the help they so obviously need.

It's understandable that King's family would remain fiercely protective of his memory. That is their right.

But they have no right to allow their overweening pride and greed to stand in the way of respectfully preserving the King legacy that belongs to us all.

[Obloquium]

The enclosed appeared in today's local newspaper. I think it's a damn shame that his own family now ACTS completely differently than his message. Isn't that just typical!

I'm trying to remember when his family hung up on their lawyers long enough to live up to his message.

[Tommy J]

The enclosed appeared in today's local newspaper. I think it's a damn shame that his own family now ACTS completely differently than his message. Isn't that just typical!

I'm trying to remember when his family hung up on their lawyers long enough to live up to his message.

It's just a damn to read the above because as a Gay man she's been very active here in Atlanta within the Gay community to achieve equal rights.

(rumor mill here: Dexter is younger son is gay)

In any case, to read that family members are getting big salaries for doing essentially nothing is gross mis-management of this trust in our city while the place is falling apart.

[Obloquium]

(rumor mill here: Dexter is younger son is gay)

I haven't heard that one. Wow.

In any case, to read that family members are getting big salaries for doing essentially nothing is gross mis-management of this trust in our city while the place is falling apart.

Well, ever since Mfume turned around the NAACP there's been no cover for badly mismanaged minority advocacy groups like the King Center, Rainbow/PUSH and the National Action Network. I mean look how Al just never brought NAN up during the campaign.

[Mayabird]

It's not really surprising. Anybody else remember that horrible commercial for some telecommunication company advising people to be "well connected" by showing King giving the "I have a dream" speech in an empty digitally edited DC?

[Tribun]

150 grand a year for simply sitting on his ass and doing NOTHING?!

I wish I had his job, getting money for ruining his fathers memory by doing nothing....

[SyntaxVorlon]

Equality is one thing but do they all have to act so white with the nepotistical bullshit.
For those without a sense of humor, that was irony, learn to love it.