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KING HEIRS TURN U.S. ICON INTO DOLLARS
Dexter King, second son of the famous civil rights crusader, had a dream. He wanted to turn his father's legacy into a cash machine like Elvis Presley's. So six years ago, he made two visits to Graceland, Presley's Memphis home, to find out how to turn his dream into dollars. And now the younger King's vision is finally taking shape.
Images of his father, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., are being used in commercials for Atlanta-based Cingular, a cellular telephone company, and Alcatel, a French telecommunications company. King's "I Have a Dream" speech, once a soul-stirring appeal to America's conscience, is now nothing more than a cheap appeal to the nation's never-satiated appetite for the latest consumer gadget.
In the Cingular commercial, King's words are heard alongside those of Kermit the Frog.
Leave it to MLK's family to accomplish what his arch-enemy, J. Edgar Hoover, could not: tarnish King's image. King's heirs have turned one of the last century's greatest heroes into a shill for commercial interests.
If the King children were seeking money to support their father's work, the commercials would be a little easier to take. It would still be unsettling to see MLK, who was troubled by personal wealth and unfettered capitalism, used as a pitchman for a corporation. But you could take comfort in the notion that the selling of the great man's words and likeness would promote the causes for which he gave his life: nonviolence, racial harmony, economic justice.
Certainly a nation growing increasingly diverse, but still roiled by divisions of race and class, could use more programs and plans intended to pass on MLK's philosophy.
But the money that Cingular and Alcatel are paying to use King's image will not go to teach schoolchildren how to resolve their conflicts without guns, or to promote coalitions between Latinos and African-Americans, or to raise the wages of hard-working men and women barely making ends meet. The money will go into the greedy, grasping hands of King's children.
In cheapening his legacy, they may also have delayed a broader acceptance of their father's true importance. Oh, it's true that the King holiday is nominally celebrated by all 50 states, and schoolchildren in most places have at least a passing familiarity with his name. But too many white Americans stubbornly cling to the view that King was a black hero, a man whose accomplishments narrowly benefited only black Americans. Now, it will be all too easy for them to dismiss him as another superficial figure in popular culture, just another fleeting celebrity, who will fade quickly.
King's heirs, especially son Dexter, have tried to mine gold from their father's speeches and sermons for a decade. They failed at their efforts to start a Disney-like for-profit museum in Atlanta, a kind of "I Have a Dreamland." And, despite conversations with filmmaker Oliver Stone, they have been unable to find much profit in developing a movie of King's life. (While Dexter King has moved to Southern California to pursue a life as a Hollywood film mogul, he has yet to put together a "deal.")
In 1997, the King heirs announced a huge deal with Time Warner, which bought rights to market King's sermons and speeches as books and CD-ROMs. The family went so far as to allow King's words to be repackaged and sold as a so-called autobiography. At the time, they expected to earn between $30 million and $50 million in 10 years, but sales may not have met their expectations.
Now, by selling off their father as just another advertising gimmick, they may have finally struck a rich vein. If the Elvis Presley estate is the model, they could yet find all sorts of additional ways to make money. And all sorts of ways to further sully their father's legacy.
Cynthia Tucker is editorial page editor for the Atlanta Constitution. She can be reached by e-mail: cynthia@ajc.com.
