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A new statue of Martin Luther King Jr. is causing controversy in Winter Park, Fla.
Residents slammed the “caricature”-like depiction of the civil rights icon for its “awkward” proportions, with the mayor saying she doesn’t know how to solve the problem given how much it cost
However, artist Andrew Luy said the feedback on his work is “greatly positive”
The town of Winter Park, Fla., got a surprise last week when a new statue of Martin Luther King Jr. was unveiled.
“It doesn’t look like him,” Nora Koenecke told NBC News.
Other residents describe the statue as “awkward” and not “up to the standards” they hoped to see for the iconic civil rights leader.
“His head was too big, his arm was too big,” said Essence Magazine co-founder Jonathan Blount, who also attended the unveiling during Winter Park’s annual Heritage Unity Festival. “It looked like a caricature.”
Andrew Luy of Huntsville, Ala., was the artist selected by a committee of members from the arts, parks, and CRA boards to create the statue. His design was approved by the King family prior to the installation.
“The feedback I got from the committee and also the majority, actually all of the attendees that came to the unveiling, was greatly positive,” Luy said. “I didn’t have direct contact with the King estate, but from what I heard, they were very happy with the representation of the sculpture of Dr. King.”
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Winter Park Mayor Sheila DeCiccio acknowledged the feedback from concerned residents.
“Maybe it just didn’t come out the way everybody had hoped it would,” she said with a chuckle. “I don’t know that there’s anything we can do about it at this point, because it was a very big investment.”
However, some, like Blount, emphasized the need to redo the statue in order to pay proper tribute to the civil rights leader.
“Do it over,” he said. “It just isn’t good enough for a permanent, lifelong representation of someone that is just so important to our history.”
Numerous other memorials to Dr. King have been constructed throughout the years, including “The Stone of Hope” in Washington, D.C. — an iconic granite statue sculpted by Lei Yixin and erected in 2011.
MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty
“The Stone of Hope” at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C.
The statue isn’t the only controversial depiction of King to be unveiled this year. In January, rapperSexyy Red found herself in hot water when she reposted an AI-generated photo of herself and Dr. King holding hands as they looked into each other’s eyes.
Dr. King’s youngest child, daughter Bernice, called out the “Skee Yee” rapper on X for sharing the image and asked her to delete it.
“This is intentionally distasteful, dishonoring, deplorable, and disrespectful to my family and my father, who is not here to respond himself because he was assassinated for working for your civil and human rights and to end war and poverty,” she wrote on the platform.
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Sexxy Red took the photo down and quickly apologized.
“You ain’t wrong, never meant to disrespect your family, my apologies,” she said, explaining, “Just resposted [sic] something I saw that I thought was innocent.”
The apology was appreciated, as Bernice later replied, “Thank you for your apology, which I sincerely accept. Please know that it was not my intention that you be denigrated. I value you as a human being.”
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