Lei Yixin, with his clay model of Dr. Martin Luther King who said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character."
Chinese Sculptor Lei Yixin, Director of the Human Sculpture Institute at Hunan Province, China received the contract to construct the Martin Luther King statue which will be unveiled in 2009 on the Mall in Washington, D.C. Lei is the winner of several prizes in China for his work of 20 years, his sculptures may be seen on display in Changsha Square, the capital of Hunan Province.
Unfortunately, Dr. King's dream in 2008 is not yet a reality. Lea Winfrey Young of King is Ours in Atlanta, complains that "outsourcing by U.S. companies and organizations to China has gone too far this time...that an African-American company or any American should have been picked for such an important project..." Washington Post.com August 15, 2007
The King statute will be the tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King. The Memorial will be between the Jefferson and Lincoln Memorials.
On October 28, 2007 the California State NAACP, ratified a resolution in support of the Atlanta based King is Ours movement which is protesting decisions made by the King Memorial Project Foundation, which has circulated a petition protesting a Chinese sculptor making the King statue.
The NAACP claims to be one of the most influential civil rights organizations "To promote equality of rights and to eradicate caste or race prejudice among the citizens of the United States, to advance the interests of colored citizens, to secure for them impartial suffrage and to increase their opportunities for securing justice in the courts, education for the children, employment according to their ability and complete equality before law."
Continuing prejudice in the USA by the NAACP---judging people not on their abilities but by the color of their skin. Oh My!
