Rocky Mount, N.C.
Officials in Rocky Mount, N.C., last week voted to sell the city’s statue of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. because it looked nothing like him. “Maybe in his younger days,” said one local woman, Wanda Durant. “Maybe his son. Not him.” African-American leaders have been lobbying for a new monument ever since the artist, Erik Blome, delivered his work two years ago. The drive picked up steam just over a year ago, when Rocky Mount elected the first City Council in its history with a black majority. Council members decided to sell Blome’s statue, which cost them $56,000, and use the money toward a $140,000 replacement.
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