Martin Luther King Memorial protest

ELBERTON JOING THE PROTEST

EGA joins protest against Chinese monument to Dr. King

By Gary Jones




An African-American artist from Atlanta said Monday that if a granite monument is built for the mall in Washington, D.C., to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., then workers, artisans and granite businesses from Georgia shouldn’t be excluded from participating in the creation of the memorial.

Artist Gilbert Young, with an endorsement from the Elberton Granite Association, said at a press conference Monday morning (MLK Day) that a process that allowed the selection of a Chinese stonecarver using Chinese granite to build the memorial to honor Dr. King is “culturally a smack in the face to American products, American history and American granite.”

Young, along with South Carolina sculptor Clint Button and Elberton granite stonecutter Dan Reed, said he has received the endorsement of the Barre (Vt.) Granite Association and Barre Master Sculptors and Carvers and now the Elberton Granite Association.

His organization, King Is Ours (www.kingisours.com), is currently staging a protest against the the MLK Memorial Project Foundation, the non-profit foundation that is working to raise funding for the memorial in Washington, D.C.

The MLK Memorial Project Foundation, says Young, is responsible for massive mismanagment of the project and he wants an investigation to find out what has happened to federal funds awarded to the organization.

Although Congress specifically stated in 1996 no federal monies would be utilized in the establishment of the memorial, in 2005 the Congress appropriated $10 million to aid the stalled project fundraisers. The foundation said the cost of the entire project will approach $100 million.

To Young’s dismay, in February of 2007, Chinese artist Lei Yixin was revealed as the project’s Artist of Record, and the memorial organization did it without even considering United States granite manufacturers, American artists or American laborers.

“Let me tell you about the dream I have,” said Young. “And that is allowing American artists to participate in Dr. King’s dream. We want to overthrow this decision and allow all American citizens with skills and resources to make a contribution to this memorial. Instead, they are allowing another culture in another country to do all the work on this project.

“The foundation failed to come (to Elberton) to look at granite from Dr. King’s home state, they failed to go to Barre, Vt., to consider the granite and the artists there,” said Young. “They should be using American stone, American artists and American ingenuity on this memorial. Instead, they are having this memorial made in a foreign country with the worst record of human rights in the history of mankind.”

Young says the notion that the foundation claims it couldn’t find American stonecutters is ridiculous.



“They want everyone to believe they couldn’t find an American artist and that they couldn’t find one quarry in the United States to get granite for this memorial,” he said.

Button, a sculptor whose family has been working in granite and stone for 117 years, said there has not been a fair and open bid process for the federal funding appropriated in 2005 and that the foundation never even visited Elbert County to find stone for the memorial.

“The King Foundation said working in granite is a ‘lost art,’ and that they couldn’t find artists and stonecutters to work on this project,” said Button. “We’re not lost. We are just being denied.”

Elberton stonecutter Dan Reed, who works with Eagle Granite, said he was ashamed of the “the fraud these people are pulling.”

“Dr. King is from Georgia,” said Reed. “And you’re going to tell me that they are going to overlook the Granite Capital of the World? I feel like this is a grave injustice to Elberton, Georgia, and to Dr. King.”

Young, Button and Reed toured Eagle Granite’s facilities at the conclusion of the press conference Monday, which was attended by Mayor Larry Guest, city council members, County Commission Chairman Tommy Lyon and members of the Elberton Granite Association.

Also in attendance was Elbert County NAACP President John Clark.

“I’m incensed and outraged,” said Clark. “They’ve allowed this work to be done by a government that allows to what amounts to slave labor work on this memorial.”

Young said that he wants the public to understand that although the federal government appropriated the funds for Dr. King’s memorial, no U.S. granite company, no U.S. granite manufacturer and no U.S. artist was allowed to bid on any phase of the project.

Vermont’s U.S. Congressional delegation has been asked to look into this matter and Young asked Elbert County’s local leaders to pass resolutions to draw attention to this situation.




Story created Jan 23, 2008 - 14:52:50 CST.